Hometown-ish

Just spent a weekend in the boons aka the country aka my hometown (kinda). God, it's a depressingly small town. I originally grew up in the suburbs of Chicago before migrating North a couple hundred miles to a place that is an hour away from decent civilisation (or indeed, any type of civilised life) as a 10 yr-old. A horrific age to move, lemme tell ya.

To me, this town of 1300 people was slow, narrow-minded, and gossipy (because let's be honest there is not much else to do in towns of this size besides root and push out babes as evident by many past classmates). I was always an itchy kid to travel but living in this horribly oppressed environment gave me iron motivation to save up and move out of the country entirely. And I did. Hurrah! And I didn't come back to this small town for even a visit until several years later.

But I had to go back. Family, y'know. Pretty important, actually. And since moving back to America, I've been up there a fair few times. Each time I'm always shocked by how fat everyone has gotten. They all have 2 or 3 kiddies from 2 or 3 fathers and most have a look of utter misery on their faces whilst they go about working at the local convienance shop or bar.

It's like there's this cycle that re-occurs in a lot of small towns. Kids get up the pole whilst still in school, they either get married or move-in with the father (and sometimes someone who isn't), pop out a couple of kids by age 20, can't afford anything because of said tots, so they get a couple of easy jobs that doesn't require skill or thought due to lack of education because of original unprotected rooting, and thus are kept in poverty getting more and more depressed, they can't keep an eye on the kids all the time so rules go broken and then the kids get pregnant and move in with their boyfriends, can't afford anything...It's so fucking depressing.

This is why I don't like going to my hometown. But some people who live in this town actually like it. And what's more is that they are successful and working towards a better future in this place! I can't even imagine. Honestly. But I'm happy for them and I suppose there could be worse places.