It's been over eight months since my girlfriend and I packed our kids up, and moved to the town of Shenandoah, Iowa. We had lived most of our lives in the much larger, and far more polluted city of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Filled with trepidation, and a sense of optimism we started our lives together, not only in a new home, but a new town. A smaller town.
Before moving, we heard talk about how hard a new town, a smaller town, would be on the kids. Talk of bullies in the schools. New kids would always be looked upon as different. And in a smaller, tight knit town, any new kid would be cast out, and looked down upon. But we needed to take the leap. We did consider this move from every angle. And in the end, it seemed like the right choice for us. We needed change. Not only in our lives, but in our surroundings.
When we first came to Shenandoah to look at the house we noticed that it was a lot quieter here. Oh sure, there's still some of that same hustle and bustle that we had always known, but it was a lot less. It was as if someone told the busy, hectic nature of the larger city to stay back there, where it belonged. It wasn't exactly serene, but a lot less hectic. And as we had our first picnic here, just the two of us, in a quiet and empty park, we knew that this would be a great place to merge our two families together.
It was with a heavy heart that I said my goodbyes to my family. We had always been a pretty close family. My brothers, all three of them, are my best friends. And I have always been a bit of a mama's boy, but we needed to do this, for us. And I'll tell you something, I don't regret it. As the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months, I found myself falling in love with this small, almost idyllic town.
We don't know many people here. We aren't exactly what you would call "social butterflies". We largely keep to ourselves. However, the people that we have met have been very friendly. This is the type of place where the neighbor spontaneously mows our lawn for us when our own lawn mower decides not to work. This is the kind of town where a visiting nurse becomes someone we can call "friend". It's the kind of town where kids get free hot-dogs at parades, and there are town activities more often than one can keep up with. It's the kind of town where the school principal will offer his time to help jump-start your crappy van, on a very cold day. It's the kind of town where a stranger really can be a long awaited friend. It's the kind of town that after a relatively short time, I know that I want to call it "home" for the rest of my days. The kind of town that we look forward to raising our unborn child in. Because it is slower. It is quieter. It is home.
Is our small corner of the world perfect? No. Far from it, I'm sure. As with anywhere in the United States, it has it's fair share of crime. But I will tell you this: we have heard police sirens so few times here, that we are genuinely surprised every time we here them. Back in Council Bluffs, we used the police sirens to wake us up in the morning, get our kids out the door to school, and even to time our pizza rolls in the oven. So, I think you'll agree that hearing the sirens so few times is more of a blessing than a curse. Of course, the alarm feature on our phones get more of a work-out, but we are okay with that. Small price to pay for peace-of-mind.
I'm not saying that small town life is for everyone. I'm not saying that Shenandoah is perfect; I mean, we do have a Wal-Mart. I'm not even saying that this is the smallest town we could have found. But we love it here. And I sincerely hope that we live here for a very long time. Because, like the new life that I started with my now fiancée, I love how things are going here. And I don't want this change to end. Shenandoah is my home.
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