As I get older, the times I get to come home have grown rare. I miss being able to watch the seasons change the way they do here. I miss seeing the same faces every day, the feeling of belonging. How quiet it gets after the last tourist has left for the season. How when fall starts to roll around, everything seems to slow down. Growing up, I took for granted the place that watched me grow up. I don’t think I realized how much it meant to me until I left. In this town, I learned so many things that shaped me into the person I have become today.

I grew up surrounded by familiar faces, in a town that took care of each other. This town has watched me go through so many changes. The people here have become my support system throughout the years. Here is where I learned about the value of friendship. The people I was lucky enough to call my best friends in high school are still the ones I can count on today. We grew up together, watched as we changed and went through different stages. We continue to be in each other’s lives, no matter how far we have gone.

In this town, I was given the confidence and encouragement that I needed to be my own person. I learned to appreciate what was around me by slowing down and really take things in. This town holds so many of my fondest memories.

I think my favorite feeling will always be the feeling of coming home. I love the way it feels to come back to the place that watched you grow up. The way it just pulls you back into days when everything was much simpler. How you can come back and suddenly everything feels the same. How all your favorite spots still seem to hold onto those memories that were made all those years ago. No matter where I go, I know that home will always be waiting for me.

“Home is the nicest word there is.” – Laura Ingles Wilder