Place Where You Live:

Bloomfield, New York

I’ve always called Bloomfield “next to nowhere.” It’s not in the middle of nowhere, just right on the edge of hicville. A lot of the kids in my high school were like me, people more interested in getting out. A lot of others were quite the opposite: They never wanted to leave. I managed to massively polarize us two kinds of kids, those used to the rural vs. those who thought it too boring.
And Bloomfield is boring. Not the center of anything except a new Dunkin’ Donuts, the only major chain that’s come to the town. I once saw a stormfront part around us and connect again, leaving us untouched, but everywhere else rained on. I joked that we were indeed that boring.
I’m still possessed by that feeling, that wish to get away from the boring, the feeling of being stuck in high school. Did Bloomfield help me then? It’s possible the feeling of stuck that the boring town surrounding the boring high school will haunt me for a while, spurring me to keep from sitting around doing what pleases me in the short term. Then perhaps I’ll fulfill all my plans and aspirations, and only then will I be surprised when I think about Bloomfield.
Honestly I don’t want to write this that much. I’m supposed to write describing the place, or why I might want to preserve it. Nature is more than important; and if we take that Dunkin’ Donuts and make it the first of many chains, the town will grow, and the farms and pockets of forest may vanish. I hope for all those who love it, for my parents who moved to it because it was a pleasant smalltown, that it stays rural, that it stays small enough and not everybody wants to leave for the big city.
As for me I’m glad it that it was my hometown. I’ll remember it often enough, but I can’t muster fondness.