My town.

Growing up in a small town was one of the very best experiences of my life. This special town was four miles through it and four miles any which way you decided to drive around it. Two gas stations, one school for kindergarten through senior year, one market, courthouse, post office and jail. Oh and the population? Around 550. Yes, the town back then was the American dream. Every citizen was your friend and someone you considered family. You never had to lock your door and your parents talked about their lives with your friends' parents during the baseball games in the summer.

The town was surrounded by evergreen and pine, neatly tucked away in the corner of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Waking up to those beautiful mountains everyday made it hard not to smile. The town was the type that made you want to be a family, and we succeeded in that promise to each other. I'll never forget the countless bike rides with my dad and my siblings, laughing and loving as we made our way up the vast hills and down into the quiet valleys.

But my favorite memory of this town was during Christmas time. Everyone has, at one time, dreamed of that perfect Christmas. Snow on the ground, caroling, love. Well I had it...in that town, we all had it. One year the entire town made way to the tree lighting ceremony, hot apple cider in hand and laughing with our friends and family. We'd wait for the town officials to light the tree and we'd cheer. We'd cheer and hug and squeeze each others' hands because it was beautiful and for that moment everything seemed right and just in the world. Then a few days later we would have the annual Christmas play and at the end of it, all the schoolchildren would stand up in front of the stage and sing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" before running off to be the first in line to sit on Santa's lap. When the play was over we would all walk to the courthouse and watch Santa and his reindeer atop the roof. We watched him wave at us and say "Ho ho ho!" and you could feel our parents believing. You could see it in their eyes that the magic they too once held as a child was there.

And when Christmas was over and the lights were all down and no sports were being played, we still came together as a town. Yes, you see, the town that I lived in will never be that town again. Everyone has grown up or moved away and watched the American dream burn out. It had seemed that we were all there to witness it's flame fade away. I will never forget that sleepy town, the people who lived there, the smiles each holiday and the way it felt to truly be a part of something. You could feel it back then, and sometimes if I hold my breath and close my eyes, I can still feel it there inside of me.