Tiny Town

When you’re a kid, you think you’ll never leave this little town. You think this is the best place in the world and it would be crazy to ever leave.

But then life catches up to you.

You start to lose faith in the place you’ve always known. You don’t see the town as an adventure anymore, it’s just a routine. Going to the same three places when you’re sad. Going to the same three places to get pictures, and the same three houses for parties. Hanging out with the same group of people at every party, on every weekend, at every lunch.

When you’re a kid, having a Walmart was like a dream. It was the biggest place and was always full of such wonder. Now, Walmart is a chore. Because when you get the car, you have to get the groceries. Now, Walmart isn’t full of wonder, it’s full of bills and responsibility.

When I was little, this town was a winter wonderland. Making snowmen and going sledding down the hill at school. Having icy snowball fights when the teachers weren’t looking, the cold recesses with no coats, because we were too cool to look cold. Never forget the falling down the hill in jeans and spending the rest of the day with a wet ass.

Nothing was more beautiful than this town all year around, but then you age, and the stars don’t shine as bright, the colours on the trees aren’t as vibrant, the water isn’t as warm, the sun isn’t as hot, and the flowers aren’t as beautiful. Your age catches up to you, and the town seems more like a prison, with everything dulled down.

Now every day you wake up and check the date to see how many more days until this little town that once filled your eyes with such wonder is behind you.

The excitement every morning, knowing that in 55 days this town won’t be home anymore, that it will just be a place where my parents live. It will merely turn into a chore, a place I have to visit every couple months.

As a kid, I didn’t think I’d make it this far. I didn’t think I’d ever leave this town. I never thought I’d be going to school for acting ‒ acting was always a dream I had, but never a reality. But now it’s here and maybe that’s why I feel this town holds nothing for me.

Maybe I’m beyond my years in this small minded town. I say small-minded because no one ever supports me on my dreams. People always ask what my backup plan is, as though that’s the real career path, almost making me lose hope that becoming an actor could ever really work. Your mind can’t evolve and love things when people won’t even let you try to achieve your dreams.

I never connected to things in this town. I never loved the dinky movie theatre, I never loved the stupid Fall Fair or lame-ass Santa's Village. The main things that make up Bracebridge were never my calling. It was the things in bigger and brighter places that captured me, and that’s why I never wanted to live here.

This town has caused me a lot of grief, but I guess without all the cold winters, rainy springs and buggy summers, I wouldn’t be the same girl going to film school.

This town is small, and people don’t always understand your dreams. But there are a couple diamonds in the mix that help you get to your final destination.

So, I guess I owe it to this tiny town for showing me I’m going to be someone when the storybook closes.

I never thought I’d thank the town that broke me down millions of times. I never thought I’d thank the town that my dad left me in. But the truth is, as much as I hate this town, it gave me a life and showed me a different world.

This town that I once thought was a curse, is actually a blessing.

I’m shooting for the stars, and without this town, I might not even know what the stars look like.

So thank you to the tiny town that once gave me a life full of wonder, but it’s time to shoot for the stars that you gave me. So I’m moving to somewhere new and better for me. I’m out of this tiny town.