Saint Cloud

I moved to Saint Cloud, Florida from the big city, Orlando. I was born and raised in Orlando. Me and Orlando, we grew up together. As I got older Orlando got more interesting. Orlando has cuisine from every country, it's home to Disney World and Universal Studios. It's close to world famous beaches including Daytona, Cocoa and Miami. From Orlando you can watch astronauts get launched into space! Why then would I choose not to write about Orlando? It's because Saint Cloud stole my heart. After 40 years of living with the constant growth and expansion of my hometown I decided I needed a change. I wanted to slow down. I wanted to get back to nature. I wanted to know my neighbors.

On a street in the neighborhood where I grew up there is a sign on the side of the road that reads "Saint Cloud 40 miles". My whole life, I'd seen this sign but I had never gone to Saint Cloud and I had never heard of anyone else going to Saint Cloud and I had never met anyone who was from Saint Cloud which made me wonder if Saint Cloud was even real. One day I just decided that I would go there. I would follow that sign pointing toward Saint Cloud and I when I did, I never looked back.

I set out one afternoon down the two lane highway that bound south. It was a slow drive with not much to see in the way of construction. Rather what I did see was a whole lot of nothing, and I liked it. I drove along tree lined stretches of winding road for most of an hour before arriving in the city of Saint Cloud. Once there I found a picturesque lakefront with white sandy beaches. Saint Cloud was small and quaint with tiny shops in a downtown with brick paved roads. Instead of fast food restaurants I saw family owned diners. Instead of retail chains, I found second hand stores and antique shops. Instead of a twelve theater cineplex, Saint Cloud had a twin theater in a building that looked to be a hundred years old. I felt like I had travelled back in time, to a place that resembled the Orlando of my youth and I was in love.

Not long after my first visit to Saint Cloud I bought my first home. It’s a small wood framed house, six blocks from the lakefront and just four blocks from downtown. I enjoy walks to the movie theater and the library and to the grocery store. In the evenings I ride my bike along the path beside the lake. On the fourth of July I can sit on my porch and watch the city fireworks display and in December the Christmas parade passes by just one block over.

All the things that had become so much work to do in Orlando are just simple pleasures in Saint Cloud. Traffic is a thing of the past. There are no crowds in Saint Cloud. Life here is lived at a slower pace. Living in Saint Cloud is just easy and loving Saint Cloud is just natural.