Despite all the odds, one year in and I’ve come to deeply adore this little shire I’ve been living in. Initially, upon moving here, I: cried, screamed, grew insufferably irritable, and generally looked at everyone here like they were absolute idiots to find the place any more than slightly charming and any less than pretentious and suffocating. I couldn’t relate to my area, simple as that. It’s a beautiful place to study, and it’s a beautiful place to hide away from the world. But, as a twenty something dying for energy and opportunities, I found the small community invasive and dull. More importantly, as a twenty something who was, at first, dying to be closer to a love that lived in one of the most energetic and artistically promising locations of present, and then became one half of a couple who shared and experienced the kind of no-one-else-in-the-world-exists-outside-us, beautifully simple romance this small town, small cabin in the woods during the depths of winter setting offers, and then became a truly single girl who realized her love was a crock of shit and therefor wanted to strangle “love” by it’s arrogant and righteously deceitful neck in as pithy a manner as possible…well, it’s easy to say I really fucking hated this place. I hated how hard it was to get around in the winter (haven’t they heard of a plow?! Unacceptable!), hated that the streets rolled up at 5pm (doesn’t anyone live here?!) despised the fact that no local person seemed to understand the terms “boundaries” or “social etiquette” (please don’t stand so close to me, we’re in a heavily UNpopulated area so I’m sure adding twenty inches between our rib cages will be perfectly okay, and no, I’m extremely uninterested in a competition to see who can outwit whom because for god knows why you feel the need to validate your existence. I am not that bored). Snarky much? Indeed.
Clearly I was able to see the negative in everything, and all the positives just weren’t adding up to enough. I needed to laugh more, I needed to love more, I needed more to appreciate, I needed to be appreciated. Sometimes, however, all it really takes is the right people; the right kind of people who can show you how to go native and be okay with falling in love with an area you vowed to hate and forever despise. I’m assuming this is what happened, anyway. That and a lot of Hemmingway, as we all know that Ernie H can make just about anyone fall in love with small town, simple, everyday life as an artist. And it’s true, somehow, someway, I’ve grown terribly fond of watching the mist roll in through the valleys; finding the most desolate and rustic roads and trails and exploring them in battered running shoes; waking up with the sun to drink coffee over my notebook; carrying my canvas shoulder bag full of cheese, produce, bread, wine and eggs all made in town and creating a delicate and savory meal as the sun goes down, adding bits from the garden as they grow in and feeling thankful for all these goddamn sheep, cows and chickens that create the vast majority of the area and tasting the sweet, grassy terroir of my native land. My new roommate actually has friends and family members whose company I enjoy, and I’ve sometimes overtaken with just how spellbinding the beauty of this area is. I mean really, it’s abnormally beautiful.
So, cheers to Middlebury, I guess you’re not that bad after all. Sorry for all that shit I spread about you for the first twelve months.
![Infertility, eh? Vermont’s 1st place award for “lowest birth rates in the States” (from which this conclusion was made) spurred a rather zesty response from local journalists a few months back, and in one particular article a defense was made that, “Vermonters specifically choose to have fewer children to reduce our carbon footprint and live a more green and economical lifestyle”. We’re so pompous (cough cough, we have an alarmingly low percentage of young natives because there aren’t enough employment options and our population’s average age is somewhere around the 40’s & 50’s…hence the recent declaration that the “young Vermonter” is an “endangered species” um, cough cough). Hey young friends, let’s start our own businesses here…the state subsidizes energy efficient light bulbs! We can have fantastic lighting and no babies forever!!!!!
thedailywhat:
Infographic of the Day: Click through for an explanation of how each state got its mark of shame (bonus: Some states are the worst at two things!).
I’ll take worst drivers over ugliest residents any day.
[pleatedjeans.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfje2wROwk1qzcv7no1_500.png)
![thedailywhat:
Infographic of the Day: Suddenly, Monday isn’t looking all that bad.
[deviantart.]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l3nhqc01xB1qzpwi0o1_500.png)
