Why I'm Glad I Was Born Somewhere Boring

reflecting on the discourse of The West Village Girls & the effort of attention no matter where you live

While I now live in Boston, I grew up in a town quite literally named Normal, Illinois. It is a college-sized town, decidedly in central Illinois and in no way deemed a Chicago suburb. It is the relative hub of a bunch of smaller towns that are in within an hour or two driving distance. Growing up, I had neither the rural idyll nor the excitement of the city. There were was going to the local Steak’n’Shake (which was founded there!), riding bikes on trails, being bored at the mall. Yet, there was a gift in this that I think about a lot now that I live somewhere that has a relative abundance of beauty and riches (the ocean, nearby islands and mountains, the city itself). In my small town fun was something we actively made, and as an adult I think it was not just despite but perhaps because of its lack of obvious charm that this view of the world grew in us as kids.