Krista - "Stand in the place where you live"

I've written about my home town in my other blog, so I don't want to just copy and paste that one for this week. Instead I'll share with you a video of what I hated about growing up here in my home town. This video made the rounds of course throughout most everyone who grew up in our sleepy little town. But afterwards, I'll share with you some of things I now appreciate about my home.



And as a teenager and a young adult, I 100% agreed with this video. There isn't a lot to do for people between the ages of 13-21. There used to be more, the video shows the burned up outside of a skating rink that used to be the place to be. And it sort of unfairly shows a lot of our less developed areas.

Sadly, this place is dying. There is an older population, and we are losing many members of our community due to the space shuttle program being shut down. And I worry about the value of my home in this economy. I know many people affected by these issues, but luckily my job isn't dependent on our local economy so I don't have the same fears as many do.

Alas, I promised some positivity about my home town. Despite the lack of activities for teens and young adults, this is a great place to raise children. It's a laid back atmosphere, lots of nature related activities, and we are only 30-45 minutes east of Orlando where there are theme parks and bigger shopping centers. We're like a suburb of a larger city, just a bit further away. I love being close to the beaches. I love going to the parks and walking by the river. I love (and I will really, really, really miss) watching the shuttle blast off into outer space, although I will not miss the huge traffic that comes along with it. Plus we do have a Starbucks, it's not completely uncivilized! Got a friend with a boat? Plenty of ramps to launch from. You always know some one. There's always a friendly face. I'm not in some huge city where I don't really know my neighbors. They're a lovely older couple who keep an eye out for me all the time. Plus the biggest reason I love it here is because the majority of my family lives within 10 minutes of my house!

By the way - that first video made a lot of city officials pretty upset, so they created a response showing that there is more to this place that just our admittedly sad looking downtown area. It may not be exciting, but as a parent, I'm not always looking for that, so it makes it ok for me.