This Used to be Home

Since I'm back in my hometown, I've decided to allow myself to go down memory lane and develop some sort of case study of the Black Hole. I really have nothing else to do since I spend all my time at Starbucks or the public library until I find a place to sleep each night. I was slightly afraid to come back to the library since I'm pretty sure I've owed 50 cents since before I moved to South Africa when I was 17. I braved the wrath of the librarians though, and I've set up residence here.

Now, when I'm being completely honest, the Black Hole isn't that small of a town - about 35,000 people or so. We have all the necessities; it's not like I'm running around cow-tipping all day. However, it's got that small town feel to it, where you feel like you know everybody and even if you don't, they're still watching your every move.  I came to visit the Black Hole once while my parents were still living in South Africa. My mother knew I was at church with a boy within an hour upon my leaving church. That's how quickly gossip spreads. You have to be on your toes; you never know who will tell your mother something you don't want her to know.

You know those towns you see in movies like "Friday Night Lights" where the town shuts down on Fridays for the football games...the Black Hole is one of those places. In fact, the Black Hole made a 5-second appearance in that movie. When I saw it in the theater, the people (including myself) cheered; it was like we saw ourselves pop up on a map for the first time. Anyway, I grew up going to football games, cheering on the team. It wasn't just cheering on the team though, it was cheering on the town. And I wouldn't go back and change that, ever.

You're almost guaranteed to run into somebody you know at Starbucks. I remember when it came to town in 9th or 10th grade. It was like 0 to 90, it was suddenly the place to hang out, and I had to learn to like coffee. I saw my high school Biology teacher there yesterday. He bought my house when my family moved to South Africa in 11th grade. It's weird how things like that can happen. I also saw three kids I went to school with at Starbucks. They weren't people I particularly cared for back in the day, but it occurred to me after about 10 minutes of avoiding eye contact that they probably didn't remember me anyway. After all, it's been something like 6 years since I moved. Sometimes, I forget the Black Hole isn't really home for me anymore; it's just the place where I grew up.