Structure / Identity

17,728 people 6.6 square miles that is Cary Illinois. That is where I am from. This is in fact a place where everyone knows everybody. Maybe not personally but for the most part if you mention a name people will know who you are talking about. You go to the one grocery store in town and you will always see at least one person that you know. That’s Cary and it’s my safe place. I’ve lived there ever since I was born and when I go home for breaks it is like I have been missing a part of me all of the time without even realizing it. Being in a small town school is something that is really unique. I shaped myself based on the people and opportunities that the schools gave me. In Cary there are 3 elementary schools, 1 Middle School, and 1 High School. For some of my classmates I had gone to school with them for twelve years. At each of these schools there was different ways to get involved. The problem was that when some other kids in my grade heard of opportunities to help out the town they really didn’t want to because their was “nothing to help with” or “ Cary is too boring to have anything going on”. I’m not going to lie when I was in Middle school that was my thinking. When I hit High School I was involved in a club where we went to a nursing home and we helped out as much as we could with the residents in this home. The lady I had the pleasure of meeting was a lady named Anna Beth. She was 85 years old and had been born and lived in Cary her whole life and she would tell me stories about the town and show me pictures of what it looked like when she was growing up. Hearing these stories really showed me how much she did love the town, because she was still here and hadn’t moved. I took time that night to think about what I loved about the town. It is that sense of community. Whenever I go home I am strictly excited to see the community and people that I have known my whole life. Living in a tight knit community has shaped me into the person I am and I wouldn’t want to have grown up anywhere else.