I am a tourist in my own hometown. I have been away for two years and have come back mid summer to see the sights and the ever changing landscape. Gilbert, Arizona is where I come from, where I grew up. Back when there was only one stoplight in town and one high school. Now it is a thriving huge city with everything you need around you. As I am swimming in the pool, I hear the never ending hum of the air-conditioners and the crickets at night. I smell the stagnant water from the irrigated lawn and I see the bright white puffy clouds in the distance with the mountains nearby. All the sights and sounds that I remember from back when I was a kid growing up that seemed insignificant at the time, but when you are away living in the Midwest and then return, you capture all those memories of childhood in a short visit. The bright, scorching sun that always shines here, casting contrasting dark shadows on the sidewalk, the locusts buzzing in the trees in the backyard. All such familiar surroundings that I sometimes miss.
So many new things have been built here that I just can't believe this is where I am from. Because it was not like this growing up. It was a small town back then, I lived on the outskirts of city life, which are now the city. I visit Joe's Farm Grill and take a picture of the sign with my family because it is an attraction and a new place to see. I really do look like a tourist my husband says. But all in all, I came here to see my family and my parents and all those that I love. I don't get to see them often, but when I do I feel grounded and taken back to my roots of who I am and how I was raised to be. I like it. It's like a breath of fresh air, a new beginning to go back and raise my little family back in Wisconsin, where not so many people know me in the community I live in. Not that I don't like it, I really do. It's just well, a different culture there. I suppose there are a lot of people like me, who don't stay where they grew up. That fits me, for I love a new adventure. But I do love coming back, even when it feels like an oven outside.
So many new things have been built here that I just can't believe this is where I am from. Because it was not like this growing up. It was a small town back then, I lived on the outskirts of city life, which are now the city. I visit Joe's Farm Grill and take a picture of the sign with my family because it is an attraction and a new place to see. I really do look like a tourist my husband says. But all in all, I came here to see my family and my parents and all those that I love. I don't get to see them often, but when I do I feel grounded and taken back to my roots of who I am and how I was raised to be. I like it. It's like a breath of fresh air, a new beginning to go back and raise my little family back in Wisconsin, where not so many people know me in the community I live in. Not that I don't like it, I really do. It's just well, a different culture there. I suppose there are a lot of people like me, who don't stay where they grew up. That fits me, for I love a new adventure. But I do love coming back, even when it feels like an oven outside.
