My name is Emma Muirhead and I had the honor of growing up in a little town in Columbia County known as Germantown, New York. Some of you reading this may think that you too grew up in a small town. I’m going to ask a few questions that will hopefully make you realize that your town might not have been as small as you think. In your town, did you ever see tractors driving on the road as an everyday thing? Did you graduate with 40 kids or less? Did you have a town of less than 2,000 people? Did people in your town drive giant trucks that “rolled coal”? Finally, did you have a town surrounded by magnitudes of cornfields and farms? If you answered no to most of these questions, then your town was certainly not as small as mine.
Growing up in a small town meant we only needed one school to accommodate all the students. My school was K-12 and was made up of around 780 students and consisted of only two floors. The first floor was K-6th and the second floor was 7th-12th. My graduating class was made up of 39 kids. Yes, I really did say 39. Since there weren’t many kids in my grade or in the school in general, I never really had a set friend group which was hard during my time at Germantown. I never found myself fitting in anywhere, which resulted in me always floating around from friend group to friend group. This forced me to grow up faster, but also helped develop the independence that I have today.
I also found unlikely friendships with the “nerds” of the grade (who turned out to be my good friends). These “nerds” annoyed me to no end, but also made my senior year ten times better than I thought it was ever going to be. I put quotations around nerds because they weren’t your typical Grade-A nerds, they also had humor, were athletic, and would occasionally fail a test or two. Either way, I still made sure to always partner-up with one of them. When I had class with them, it was always something fun and new each time. My circle of friends shrunk each year, until finally I had my core circle Senior year. Thank you to those friends who stood by my side even after high school was over, you all know who you are.
I also had my first serious, long-term relationship in high school with someone who went to the same school with me. Although the relationship is over, I am thankful for every memory and moment that we have had together over the years. My first relationship was spontaneous and out-of-the-blue, but was certainly special and meaningful. We had different opinions on some things in life, but that helped me open my mind by looking at his perspective as well. During my senior year, I also developed close student-teacher relationships with my science and English teacher, Mr. Hanson, and Ms. Katz. They always knew I had potential and drive, and always made sure I knew that too. I was always looking forward to the conversations I had with them because they pushed my ideas by asking questions that I never thought to think of. I’m thankful for their guidance throughout my years of high school.
(The “Nerds”)
My main support group was my mom and dad. Not having strong friendships in high school resulted in me becoming closer with my parents. I will forever cherish them pushing me to do my very best and for never giving up on me. They also saw my true potential and knew I had determination and goals that were achievable. My parents have helped shape me to become the person I am today. My dad saw my strengths and weaknesses and always pushed me to practice, practice, practice. Because of my dad, I knew practice would make me better, not perfect. Nobody’s perfect and that is surely okay. My mom strengthened my creativity and independence. She was always making sure I was kind to whoever entered my life, whether they were good or bad. My mom has helped me face life with a positive outlook rather than negative.
Although the town had its difficulties, I will never regret my time there. To me, not fitting in with people in my school was a blessing more than a curse. I believe I was able to grow up faster and was able to look past high school even when I hadn’t graduated yet. Even though I can count on both hands the people I keep in contact with, those are ones who always stood by me and who always had my back no matter what. Those are the ones who will forever have a place in my heart. Without Germantown and the people in it, I never would have been the person I am today.
HCXO,
Emma