youth

My blue neighborhood is two small towns sandwiched between two not so small mountains one of which helped teach me to fly

Here in this blue neighborhood I learned to ski, I learned to dance, and I learned to read

I learned how it feels to fly As I soared across the stage and through the snowy pines

Here I learned to swim treading the water in ice cold swimming pool where I had my 9th birthday party And it was fun at times and scary at others like when my lips would turn blue

Here I learned who I am through bad phases and realizations I slowly discovered more about me While sitting under trees and on rocks next to the turquoise swimming holes Where I find my self a lot during the short summer months

And even some tiny things are are part of my blue neighborhood Like the little wooden bench next to the huge oak tree both of which are no longer there where I met Ella

Playing peagus we soared away from that bench and into more and more adventures Across that blue neighborhood and a few times beyond

And there’s all these memories I have yet to make in this blue neighborhood that will one day beg me to stay

Like my fist kiss then my first date and how magical it will feel at the time Or the first time I’ll get drunk stumbling to bed And even my first heart break that marks the end of one of my high school loves

My 7th grade teacher had us draw heart maps at the beginning of the year She told us to put all of our biggest memories inside a heart that we had drawn I think of my blue neighborhood in a similar way

Except instead of one giant heart there’s many places that are Hearts of this blue neighborhood Vidal to the survival of the things outside the Hearts, along with all of the other hearts

That little wooden bench is a heart and so is the downtown dance studio that helped teach me to fly But if the wooden bench had never become a heart there would be no dance studio and the blue neighborhood would struggle to survive

Because my parents moved to a shitty middle of no where town in northern Vermont on a limb with a toddler and a 4 month old me they lead to the Bench and Ella who became my best friend and showed me dance my passion

I’d miss this blue neighborhood if I left But there’s always cars, busses, trains, and planes, heck there’s even boats Because I want to see the world

I want to see the night life in Vegas to the culture of Japan I want to see the glorious mountains of New Zealand and the beaches of Australia I want to study Abroad in Europe and visit the hot springs in Iceland I want to chase my dreams where ever they might take me

But no matter water my blue neighborhood and all of its hearts will always belong to me And its inhabitants

And who knows maybe one day I’ll have kids of my own and and life long partner and we can come back to the southern part of this valley and these two towns sandwiched between two mountains one if which helped teach me to fly and I can show them my blue neighborhood and all of its hearts

And maybe I’ll stay and raise them here

Or

Maybe like my parents I’ll leave my blue neighborhood behind I’ll bring my kids to some where new on a limb with my partner at my side on my side and there they’ll find their bench and their Ella and their downtown dance studio and maybe there they’ll learn to fly