Summer Shock

I thought moving home for the summer was going to be easy. I mean sure, I hadn't been home in a while and I wouldn't really know anyone but I had a job lined up so that would work. Once I actually got there though, it was a different story.

I’m Caitlyn, the AUB International Student Ambassador for the United States of America, and I just finished my first year in Costume and Performance design. I come from a small town in northern California, far away from the business of Los Angeles or the Hipster culture in San Francisco. A sleepy town full of farms, High School rivalries and nothing to do after 6pm.

Coming back to that town this summer has been jarring. I feel out of place even though I spent most of my life here. After a year of using the bus and walking everywhere, Its weird that I need to drive to get anywhere or do anything. Spoons has been replaced by diners that serve endless coffee instead of pitchers of mixed drinks or beer on tap.

It kinda feels like a dream, everything seems familiar but it also is alien. Places downtown are gone, I just found out the building where I first found my love of Theatre will be demolished for a new building. The names and shows we were in graffiti-ed along the walls will be gone forever; My graduating year's fleeting part of music dept. history gone before its time. Even my cat Cassie didn't recognise me at first.

It has been really good to be home. I haven't been home for longer than a week in three years; and I might not even come home after I graduate. For now I'm savouring it, trying to not be too put off from the unsettling vibe. It might be the last time I live in my hometown, that's scary and exciting at the same time.