Whenever I enter a new class or club at school and the icebreakers are busted out, I know that I’m going to get a few “really?” ‘s and possibly a couple of eagle screeches.
I am from an itty bitty town about 50 minutes north of St. Bonaventure called Freedom, NY.
Freedom is exactly what you think it would be. It is the true definition of small-town USA. I live on a main road but don’t have a ton of neighbors.
There are constantly trucks flying by at 60 miles an hour, honking at our neighbor’s house (he drives a semi). Dogs are always barking, and the creek that runs through the backyard creates the soothing sound of running water.
I haven’t always had the best relationship with my hometown. As I said, it’s the very picture of small, rural towns across America. We have a gas station and an ice cream parlor (shoutout Smiles!). We don’t even have a stoplight in our town. If you blink, I promise you will miss it.
I have lived in the same house in Freedom my whole life. My big, red house has a matching garage and even a red playhouse. Though sometimes Freedom can feel constricting and like I’ve outgrown it, it’s like a little sibling. I can make fun of it, but when others do it, I flare up.
That’s the Freedom that holds my mom, dad and memories of my brother.
It’s where I first met all of my family members with blubbery cheeks… probably babbling away. All my aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa, are looking down at me. They weren’t wondering if I was going to do that embarrassing thing that one time. They weren’t thinking anything other than, I’m so happy she’s here and healthy and smiling.
It’s where all my friends from kindergarten all the way through high school would come to swim for hours on end. We would always end the day with a PB&J if it was lunchtime or hot dogs if it was dinner time, fruit and SO MANY nacho cheese Doritos.
It’s where we host all family holidays. I’ve had 21 birthdays in the house and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Some of my very best friends live right up the street and I can walk to their houses. My little cousins, who are basically my siblings, have their own designated spaces and corners, marked by my old clothes in stacked piles for them to wear.
I have eaten a million and one ice cream cones from Smiles and will eat a million and one more in this life because they are a staple in my town.
All this to say, yes, Freedom and I have had our issues, our qualms, whatever your preferred phrasing may be. But the love I have for what it holds will always far outweigh anything else.