Wallingford, Connecticut ... where do I begin with the town I have lived in all my life. Well ... it's a weird name? Wallingford. It's not cool sounding like Cheshire or tough sounding like Meriden, or sweet like Durham. It sounds whimsical almost. I used to hate the name because I didn't know how to spell it in elementary school, but I have warmed up to the name, the town and the people in it, and I am happy to call this place my true home. It's the place where my roots were panted and even if I leave, a part of me will always stay here. This town built me and it built everyone. All the people of Wallyworld have experienced the same things as me, and here are just a couple I thought of.

1. Powderpuff

Yeah, we pretty much invented that. While surrounding towns barely even have a practice, and surrounding states don't even know what Powderpuff is, Wallingford lives for this sport! Most of the senior girls from Lyman Hall High School and Mark T. Sheehan high school, the two public high schools in town, going head to head the Wednesday (and the occasional Tuesday) before Thanksgiving. Friends become enemies for the entirety of the girl's football game! Flags and braids and pulled, weeks of practicing beforehand, and Lyman and Sheehan alumni and teachers coaching. Oh and let's not forget the senior boys from the school acting as cheerleaders for the game. Oh and the coupe thousand people that go. Yeah, Wallingford owns powderpuff for over 45 years, and it isn't changing soon.

2. Lyman Hall vs. Sheehan

Eight elementary schools that turn into two middle schools that turn into two high schools. West Side: Sheehan Titans; East Side: Lyman Hall Trojans. Where you go gives you pride and you may have a best friend at the other school, but there is always a debate on which school is better. We may never know the answer, but let's allow the rivalry to take effect.

3. Choate Rosemary Hall

We have lived in harmony for years with the boarding school taking residency in our town. The school is generous enough to give some of the "townies" scholarships to it's prestigious learning, and we try not to gasp as the $55,780 boarding price for the high school. We don't really understand the "Choaties" and the don't really understand us "townies." However, we try and find common ground in the main street shops whenever possible.

4. Mayor Dickinson's a great singer.

For the past couple years, at a couple graduation ceremonies, the mayor of our town (who may be the only mayor of Wallingford for how long he's been in office) has graced us with his renditions on "I Don't Care" by Icona Pop and "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon, but applied them to moving on past high school. It was epic.

5. We find our own fun.

Whether it be eating, going to surrounding towns for events, waiting for the Holy Trinity Carnival, or going up mountains (yeah parents know about that), Wallyworlders find a way to have fun. Wallingford isn't a slow town. It's just when you live there all your life, you gotta take things into your own hands. And then again, some things in Wallingford never get old.

6. Pizza and diners — can't decide

Hometown, Amore, Little Italy, Colony, Half Moon ... so much pizza and it's all so good. Can you really choose just one place who makes the best slice? And then you have Colony Diner, Connie's, Dad's, or Rick's and you literally have to do a soul search for where you want you pancakes. So many homemade places doing it right, but who is doing it the best? I don't know!

7. No easy way to get through town

Route 68, Route 5 and then all these backroads! Don't even get us started on rush hour. It could literally take an our to get from west side to east side. Really, it could and it's exhausting. If only is would all go away!

8. Everyone knows everyone, or knows someone who knows their sister's finance's last name.

We may not know each other's face, but there is always a connection in this town, and seven degrees of separation has never seemed so small. You know someone's last name or you know someone who hangs out with that person. There is always a way in Wallingford!

9. Neil's ... enough said.

Best donuts ... ever. The line-worth it! Should they be open on Monday's? Yep! (Excuse me, my stomach is growling.)

10. We feel like a small town, even though we aren't.

We have two high schools that have under a thousand kids, so it feels small in those little communities. However, when you think about it, if you combined schools, you would have almost two thousand kids, as big as our surrounding towns and cites. And then you see that we have about forty five thousand people living in town, and that we could technically be a city, but then we stop and remember we have little towns within our town, like Yalesville. We like being a town. We wanna stay that way.

11. We have a little brother issue with our surrounding areas.

We deal with the rich, athletically gifted Cheshire, the rough and touch city of Meriden, and the calmness of Durham, and somehow we have made our own kind of person. Nice middle class people who have a tough attitude but live near trees and farms. And we try and level up with our surrounding areas, but usually, we know were aren;t like them ... we are everything good about them, and that gets our ego going only to be deflated when going against Cheshire in sports, being in Meriden at night, and going to Durham's fair. We'll get there.

12. The fast food!

Let's list it off, shall we? We have three Dunkin' Donuts, Chili's, Plaza Azteca, Chipotle, Panera, Chic Fil A, McDonalds, Wendy's and three Subways. We have some major highways coming through, so we get the easy pass when it comes to food — let's also not forget the Five Guys we are building too.

13. The Ridges — Oh please help!

The GPS is not enough! It isn't working! There are no street signs, we're lost, we are thinking about camping out in the grass because we can't get out of the interlocked neighborhoods! All we wanted to do was go to our friend's birthday party ... and then you realized that you passed the house six times. The Ridges are a maze where only those who live in the chaos, survive.

14. Despite what we say, we do like it here.

Taxes are good, schools are good, we have an electric company. People are half Yankees and half Red Sox, Giants and Patriots, and they are nice about it (usually). Everything is nice. Everything is okay. There isn't much wrong. Settling down is nice. Settling down sounds great.

15. We have to make a choice.

Urban Dictionary depicted Wallingford, Connecticut as a place no one really leaves. That isn't a bad thing. Wallingford is not making us stay. It raised us. We have the choice to leave or stay, and if we stay, we are still happy. If we leave we are still happy. But at one point, we make that choice to stay in Wallyworld, or get out there.