Newtown

"So, where you from?"

"Newtown Connecticut"

"Where's that?"

"It's in the southwesternish part of the state"

:blank stare:

"It's the next town over from Danbury"

:blank stare"

"We're like 90 minutes/2 hours away from New York City"

"Ooohhhhhhhhhh"

That was how every conversation about where I grew up went.  Without question.  And now I wish that's how'd it continue.  Now tens of millions of people know where Newtown is, and it's the worst reason why.  These 10s of millions of people are now going to associate my home town as the location of one of the most single violent acts in the world.

And it sucks.  Because Newtown is so much better then that.

Newtown is a place where the two biggest things I've encountered there was being part of Sleepers (where a bunch of friends and myself are considered zero degrees off of Kevin Bacon) and in my sophomore (?) year of high school, there was a massive student walk out as the school decided to change mascots mid-year.

Newtown is a place where the entire town congregates in the huge pasture in the middle of town every December to watch a tree get lit for Christmas.

Newtown is a place where there were two parks, each with it's own pool.  One of them was being a well regulated pond where you could watch the lifeguards dump chlorine in there daily, but no one cared SINCE THERE WAS A DOCK IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!

Newtown has its own Ice Cream Shop.  Where EVERYONE went to summer weekday nights after Little League baseball games.  Didn't matter if you won or lost, you got the ice cream.  And for whatever reason, they went fishin every winter.

Newtown still has a General Store.

Newtown's movie theater is in its Town Hall.  Soooo, you can go pay your parking ticket, then catch a matinee of whatever 2 month old movie made its way there... for $2.

Newtown is a place where every Labor Day the town holds a parade and kids treat it bigger then the Thanksgiving parade in NYC because everyone gave away candy.

Newtown is where words with fri... scrabble was created.

Newtown is a place where every Halloween for a period of time, a guy would put together his own haunted house on his own property and invited everyone to come.

I have a bunch of friends outside of Newtown and outside of Connecticut whose only knowledge of my town is what they saw on TV yesterday and today.  Don't let this define your thoughts of Newtown.  We're a peaceful, quiet town and most importantly, a strong community.  And to read the support from everyone from my fellow NHS classmates all the way to Kevin Durant and The President is still surreal to me.

Stay Strong, Newtown!