Aleena Norris 4/2/24: Beauty in the Mundane

My parents grew up in the small town of Camanche, Iowa. This town consists of 4,500 people, most of whom which never leave. My family visited our family in Camanche for the first time in almost 5 years this past weekend. We stopped at a record story in a city outside of Camanche, and when the owner was told that we were visiting Camanche, he responded jokingly, "some people still pass through there!" There isn't much to do in Camanche, the landscape is full of corn fields and other empty fields. My parents left Iowa after college, and have only been back to visit since then. Because they left, returning brings them a sense of comfort and wonder to be around the place that formed them. Visiting the place they grew up, allows them to reflect on how much they (and others) have changed since then, in a radical way. The individuals that never left might not get to experience this same sense of returning wonder. For those that never left, the same roads and same buildings and same people can turn mundane instead of comforting or inspiring. Things lose their sparkle when you outgrow them but stay around them. There is beauty in leaving something, whether a place or a person, and being able to return to it, in order to appreciate it. Often, returning to something makes it far more beautiful than how you would experience that thing if you never left. However, are the places and people you return to really different? You, the viewer, are often the thing that has changed. How we think impacts how we perceive things. This is why four people can look at one piece of art and all receive different perspectives and inspiration from it. The art does not teach, your own life experiences and perspectives do. Visiting my family this past weekend, led me to reflect on these concepts and ideas. My parents leaving their hometown at such a young age, maybe has influenced me in wanting to leave my own after college. I wonder how leaving will change the way that I feel and view my hometown when I return. Will leaving help keep it's sparkle?

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