Just a small town girl living in a (not so) lonely world.  Back in 2016, HuffPost published a blog post titled “13 Reasons to Date a Girl From a Small Town“.  Among them were:

• She’s courageously independent for making the decision to leave home and explore the world;
• She’s a family girl – family is the unbreakable unit in little communities;
• She’s appreciative and hardworking;
• She loves enduring banter;
• She’s optimistic in her perception of human beings;
• She lusts for learning and travel.

Ok, drop me an emoji in the comments if you’re from a small town.  In fact, drop me an emoji and tag your hometown proud.  No doubt most of us small town lasses can relate to most of the above personality traits.  If you’re like me your heart beats for the village that raised you, the neighbourhood where your roots first grew, and the people who make up the memory reel of your childhood.

If you’re also like me you spent your adolescence trying to get away from the place that seemed too confined for your youthful curiosity.  You wanted to roam the world and make it on your own.  You probably travelled so far away on some luck and lust that alas, you had found yourself.

Then (again, if you’re like me) that confidence began to stir up confusion because a feeling of yearning for the familiar began stirring up a sense of belonging that unknowingly you had drifted away from.  Although the life you had built with love and laughter was fulfilling the same sense of curiosity that once took you away was bringing you back home.

Curiosity brought me back to my small town.  And community is what has kept me here.  A friend once said to me, “Nic, someday you’ll decide where and with whom you want to grow old with.  And that place will be home.”

So here I am – a small town girl who appreciates friends and family and who is always plotting her next life lesson and travel adventure.  I’m grateful to have a life partner who embraces and endures my quirks; a person who makes me sing, “I want to grow old with you”.  I’m thankful for a village that trusts me to help build and lead it.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that I’m just a small town girl who, as Tom Waits’ lyrics suggests, never saw her hometown until she stayed away too long.

Wherever you are, I hope you have strong roots, connections to people and a community where you don’t stop believing in the good in humanity.

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