To celebrate tradition.

Watching the Balloon Races, Night Glows and entering my pets in the Balloon Days Pet Show was always an exciting time to look forward to in September.

I remember being in almost every parade for every holiday from about 4^th grade through high school. I will never forget going to Creston events with my family and running into all of my best friends from school. Creston annual events and traditions were always filled with friendly faces.

To be competitive.

Creston athletes take their sports seriously. Every high school athlete aims to get his or her name in the Creston News Advertiser as often as possible.

The entire town gets riled up when our teams play rivals in football, basketball, soccer, ect. Literally every sport at Creston High School has a huge support system from the community. The entire community is proud of our cheerleaders, dancers and band students as well.

In Creston, children are encouraged to get involved and be competitive from a young age. I remember my middle school basketball team was seriously HUGE. Growing up in Creston has taught me to fight my hardest with no matter what it is, because I will always have a strong support system.

To be kind to everyone, even those you don’t get along with.

When you have about 100 kids in your grade, chances are you will have classes with people you don’t like. At big schools, it is easy to avoid people you don’t like because you don’t have to know everybody.

At Creston, it seems like everybody knows everybody. Being from a small town has taught me that even if I don’t get along with someone, I can still be kind to them. I don’t have to be their best friend, but I will have to associate with them sometimes so I might as well make it as pleasant as possible.

I think this is a skill that has benefitted myself and many other Creston students in the work environment.

To appreciate the small things.

When I was bored in Creston, what did I do for fun? Sometimes I went to Wal-Mart with my friends. Other times we went for drives out to Green Valley State Park. Occasionally we would see the one movie at the theater or go bowling, but usually we had to be creative about things to do for fun.

When you live in Creston, Iowa and you feel like going to the mall to shop, you have to make a day out of it. It was a really fun day when my family or a group of friends would get to drive an hour to go to Des Moines to get lunch and do some shopping.

Being from a humble town with not a whole lot going on all of the time really makes you appreciate a simple life. While growing up in Creston, Iowa I was completely focused on my family, my friends and my town.

Now that I have grown up a bit and moved away from Creston, I appreciate all of the things the town did for me and how it made me who I am today.