Once upon a time, I used to think that everyone grew up the way I was growing up. I used to think that my small town life was the Times New Roman, 12 point font standard for childhood. This idea was short lived and I learned that, while small towns do come in mass quantities around here, little kids like me are still allowed to grow up in the big cities, too. I bet you that nearly everyone from a small town will tell you that their small town is different, kindly woven with helping hands, and the most special of them all. I’ll tell you right now that I’m about to be one of those people.
Growing up between two households because of divorced parents, my weeks and every other weekend were spent with my mom and sister in Aurora, Nebraska. My summers were spent riding my bike across town to the community pool, where I exercised my use of the family pass every single day. Conveniently, there was a snow-cone shack parked on the other side of the fence where I would deposit my quarters and get a blue raspberry colored tongue in return. I played softball at a field around the corner from my house and had my very best friend that lived down the street in the opposite direction. The County Fair was no joke (seriously, no joke). We would trick-or-treat on our town square in the fall, drive around town to see everyone’s Christmas lights in winter, and you can’t forget about the Optimist Club’s youth soccer league in the spring. As I grew up, I watched disasters strike families in our small community in the form of accidents, injuries, sickness, and storm damage, but each time I also saw the people in our small town rise to the occasion and find a way to help their neighbor.
I grew up, I graduated, and I left my small town. Nearly everyone from a small town will tell you that their town is different, that it’s the best, but if they grew up there, they may also tell you that at some point in time, they couldn’t wait to get out of it. When I left for college, I grew in new ways. I met new people from all over the world, took tough classes that challenged me to think in new ways, got sick for the first time without my mom there to take care of me, bought plane tickets to exciting places, and grew to learn the value of communication, especially in the form of a handwritten letter. Despite the positives of leaving, I grew to appreciate my small town in a way I never got to before: I received cards from my church, calls from my mom that included well wishes from those who she ran into at the store that day, an article written about me in our local newspaper when I gained a new leadership role on my campus six hours away, and there was always Runza to come home to during breaks. Most recently, I came home fresh out of graduating from my first two years of college and after I passed through our state capital, that marks an hour away from home, I remembered how much I really did miss this place. As young adults, we are meant to grow, travel, explore, learn, and create a life for ourselves. We also have to realize the importance of remembering where we came from, who we used to be, and we can never forget the people who helped make us who we are.
When I got back, I was able to catch one of my little cousin’s baseball games, the second one of the season. When they won, I took him out for ice cream to celebrate. We sat in my car, devouring our favorite cones, and talked about his middle school career so far, which includes some of the very same teachers I had when passing through Aurora Public schools. I met up with a close friend who always makes a point to see me when I’m back; we ate at the same Chinese restaurant and reminisced on our high school glory days and the people in them the same way we always do. I drove through the streets without my GPS because I know this town and the one stoplight better than I know the back of my own hand. I stepped on my high school’s track and closed my eyes to relive the elementary field day relays and the Friday nights when the whole town came out to cheer on our football team. And tonight, I’m headed to bed early because tomorrow morning I’ll toss on my gardening gloves and help plant flowers in our square downtown because when your hometown is a small town that’s what you do. They say it takes a village to raise a kid, and I can agree. After all, it took a small town to raise me.
