Today my mom and I drove to Cleveland to have dinner with some relatives. This meant driving down all of Darrow Road in Hudson. (Hudson is where I grew up; I moved to Stow a year ago, about a week before school started, a couple days after I got cut from the marching band). As I thought about the fact that after I leave next week, I really don’t plan on calling this place home ever again, I noticed some of the valuable landmarks of my life.
First we passed my old School of Dance, on the border of Stow and Hudson, where I spent my whole life not only struggling through dance lessons, but learning lessons of confidence and determination and happiness.
We passed the pizza shop where my friends and I used to have late night parties after every football game. I worked there one summer—worst job I ever had.
We sped by the Drug Mart, where we had gone before the Homecoming dance one year, all dressed up, just to hang out.
We passed that new meeting center they had built, where Relay for Life Captains used to meet all winter long to get excited and plan for the big Spring event.
We passed the local ice cream store, Bricker’s, where I used to eat after every softball game; the many strike-outs, a few celebrations after unbelievable plays.
We drove through Main Street (we lived in a Historical town, so everything is old-fashioned and preserved by historical societies), where I had marched every year in the Memorial Day Parade, and then played jazz on the Green that night.
We passed the tennis court where my best friend and I had gone to play tennis one night, neither of us knowing how to play, and ending up getting in big trouble for staying out waaay too late.
We passed the big Cemetery (yes, the Cemetery), where my dad had taught me how to drive.
All on one road. Then we hit the next town.
It’s really not sad anymore, just full of memories and funny stories and life-changing moments. I drive through here a lot and often forget to notice these landmarks. But they remind me of my roots, of how I became who I am today.
Nelson Mandela once said, "There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered." So true.