Today is hopefully the one and only worst day I will have in Chicago as my FOMO (fear of missing out) is in full swing and my homesickness is at its largest. Though I can only trust Facebook statuses and tweets, my hometown is supposedly looking spectacular for the 250th anniversary of this great small place. There is going to be a parade, some concerts, a lot of activities and my absolutely favorite: fireworks.
Being an entire plane ride away from home for what the summer has got me thinking a lot about my roots and where I come from…
People who are not from Winchendon give the place a bad reputation because of it’s history, how small it is, and the way it looks when you drive down the center of it.
People who live in Winchendon mostly hate it because there is no employment, there is often nothing to do and the place is just simply filled with people you always see and actually never want to.
Okay, okay, I know I am being harsh, especially too much so on the Winch’s B-Day but please forgive me in advance, this blog post is not going to be as cynical as I have made it in the last few paragraphs.
I know have made general statements about the town that are negative but they are just GENERAL STATEMENTS. And I think in society today, we take for granted how dangerous general statements can actually be. And this is a curse for Winchendon in the worst way possible. Too many people are by far way too narrow minded to see the beauty of a town that is small yet embraces tradition and community in a way that I have yet to see another town do.
Growing up in Winchendon was not easy most of the time. Living in a place where there were very little businesses thriving, the closest real grocery store was about a 20 minute drive, and the shopping mall was 30 minutes away, you get really aggravated. Growing up in a town where you know everyone and their mother and sometimes coming across some whom you really disliked yet saw them all the time makes someone really anxious to leave and get out.
Um, yeah, so this was me.
My whole life I had dreamed of getting out Winchendon, the simplicity of the town and its demographics drove me up a wall, it created a wanderlust for me not to just get out but to TRAVEL. When I had these desires, I was probably about 10 and when I became a neurotic pre-teen/teenager, I wanted nothing more in life to than to be out of Winchendon. However, I knew it was going to be a while before I could actually leave, so I did some community service to kill some time… and then I did A LOT of community service.
Being involved in my home community gave me a better understanding of why the environment of the town was the way it was. It also made me realize, that most small towns are very similar to each other and while we antagonize what the environment of Winchendon was to the mere idea that “Its Winchendon”, I think too often the people who live in Winchendon forget to recognize that the only evil to the town are themselves. We often fail to look at whom we are and what we are doing to productively to change something to make it better. But since our only evils are ourselves, that also means we are only blessings.
I have seen these blessings in the work of the 250th Committee and it is extremely impressive. A group of people dedicated to working to plan and build a monumental day because they LOVE Winchendon--WOW. We can point fingers, blame the system, the environment, the history, but there is no better cure for change then yourself and the people around you. I have learned this from growing up in Winchendon.
There are no words to describe the way you love the place you grow up in. Even if you hated it while you were living there, you owe your hometown for your growth, your wisdom, and your character. I can’t even fathom the human being I would be if I did not grow up in Winchendon. Though I have lived the majority of the past two years in metropolitan areas as a result of wanting to “get out of Winchendon”, I have had to reevaluate the influence this place has had on me; it has been my everything. It is a place of memories, it is a beautiful real life and living classroom, and it is home. While I will admit, I hate/love for Winchendon growing up, I wouldn’t trade the life I had here for the world.
If you are Winchendon today, please enjoy your selves. I don’t think we are seeing another celebration like this for another 25 or 50 years. Be apart of history today.
Happy 250th, Winchendon, Massachusetts:
My hometown,
My happiness,
My whole heart.
xo
KK