Reflecting on Life in a Small Town

Every time I hear Kelsea Ballerini’s song half of my hometown, I get super nostalgic and reminiscent of the 18 years I spent growing up in my own hometown — a quiet, off the grid village in middle-of-nowhere Central Wisconsin. To most, Arpin, is no more than a flyover farm town; with a small population of a few hundred people, no stoplights, and no school of its own, not many people from outside the local area know where its coordinates fall on a map. To me though, Arpin is at the heart of almost all of my childhood memories — days spent playing Barbies with my sisters, having snowball fights on cold snowy days, listening to Sunday morning polka music with my dad, playing on the old train bridge in the woods behind my parent’s house, running through the neighborhood playing games of cops and robbers, listening to the summer sounds of the bug zapper, winter tubing at Power’s Bluff, camping at North Wood County Park, biking six miles to school with my best friend Chad, learning to drive “Bob”, my mom’s 1994 Toyota Corolla, fighting for bathroom time in our small one bathroom house, and hanging out with friends on weekends, among many other memories.

My hometown is one of those “blink and you might miss it” type places. Void of gas stations, retail chains, and other big businesses, Arpin is home to a volunteer fire department, a tiny post office, a small convenience store, a hole in the wall hardware store, a public library, a Presbyterian church, a handful of bars, and not much else. On Main Street, an old cheese factory sits part vacant, part cold storage; it’s been that way as long as I can remember. Atop the hill on Church Road, you’ll find an old dilapidated school building that’s been abandoned all of my life and more. There’s not much hustle and bustle about it. Aside from the casual passing of cars and trucks, four wheelers, UTVs, tractors, and the occasional Amish buggy, there’s not much traffic to be seen. Kids can hang out at the local park, but even that’s nothing to write home about. It’s a quiet place free of big city commotion — and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Growing up in a small town taught me it’s not what amenities are available that make or break a place, it’s the sentimental value that “home” creates.

After graduating from high school in 2010, I moved to my college town, a small city about an hour east of my hometown. For the next four years, I learned to live on my own, far enough away to gain my first taste of independence, but close enough to drive home when I craved a little familiarity. Post-college, I took a huge leap of faith and moved across the country from Wisconsin to North Carolina, effectively placing myself 1,000 miles away from the only life I’d ever really known. Though I miss my youthful small town life dearly, I know I’ve grown up and matured into a better person in the ten years I’ve been gone. I’ve experienced the ebbs and flows of adulthood, gained so much perspective, traveled near and far to expand my cultural horizons, and started to build a life of my own with Alex and the boys.

Living so far away from my hometown, I don’t get the opportunity to visit as often as I’d like. That being said, when I do visit, I cherish every minute I get; there’s something about spending time with family and walking along the very streets I grew up on that brings a lot of love and happiness to my soul. I can’t imagine there will ever be a day I move back to my hometown, but that doesn’t mean I love it any less now than I did growing up. For me, it’s a constant tug of war feeling of always being ready to leave, yet always wanting to come back. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to show more and more gratitude and appreciation for my hometown and all the life I got to experience within its small footprint. Some people I grew up with never left the area while others, like myself, moved far away. But no matter where I end up in this life, one thing I know for sure is half of me will always be in Arpin, Wisconsin — a place that means nothing to most people but everything to me.

What’s your hometown like?

PS — These photos were taken on my most recent, much needed trip back home to Wisconsin at the end of January. Unlike my last summertime visit when the grass was greener and temperatures were much warmer, this trip included a foot’s worth of fluffy white snow and below freezing temperatures that might scare most people away. But I love it, probably because I grew up in it.

Enjoy!

JB