I was raised in Liberty, Texas. It is a small town, located east of Houston, and is the “First City on the Trinity (River)”. You can drive through town in ten minutes or less, all depending on how many of the five red lights you catch on Main street. The schools are virtually on the same street, and its extremely common to have the same people in your class from kindergarten to high school.
The crown jewel of the city is our Wal-Mart, which is the second largest in the state, or so I’m told. It is the largest source of retail entertainment for the town, and you should never count on just “running to the store” because you will always run into someone you know.
If you would rather not spend your time and money at Wal-Mart, the other popular past time is going out to whatever high school game is in season. These athletes are the fastest,strongest, and most talented group of young people who any college scout could ever lay eyes on, or at least that is what their parents, grandparents, and random assortment of other relatives will be quick to tell you in the stands. In all reality however, I cannot remember the last winning season we had in any sport.
That does not stop the entire town from viewing the quarterback, star pitcher, or random member of the volleyball team as local celebrities. One of my closest friends, who is actually quite athletically talented, can hardly eat out without someone stopping by to say, “hello”, even though she’s been out of high school for over four years.
Country artist, and fellow small-town girl, Miranda Lambert describes the way of life in small towns as,
They say life is so much sweeter
Through the telephoto lens of fame
Around here you get just as much attention
Cheerin’ at the high school football gameWhether you’re late for church
Or you’re stuck in jail
Hey, word’s gonna get around.
She is right in so many ways. Being a citizen of a small town is more like being a member of an extremely large family. Everyone is eager to cheer you on when you’re doing something right, but they also love to talk about you when everything’s going wrong in your life.
For everything that it is, and everything that it is not, Liberty is home. I believe that John Ed Pearce once captured the feeling of home best when he said, ” Home is the place that you grow up wanting to leave, but grow old wanting to get back to.” Not much goes on in the small town of mine, but in some ways that’s comforting, and because everyone knows you so well, there’s plenty of life lessons to be taught along the way.
The pace in small towns allows you take an occasional step back from life and truly get to know people. One of the greatest tragedies of life stems from never knowing your neighbors, or understanding the struggles of a fellow classmate.
The people in Liberty understand this, and work to reach out to others in any way that they can. Specifically for the kids, the local churches in the area created a program called, “Friends in Deed” that helps provide clothes,school supplies, Christmas gifts to children that would not have it otherwise. It is amazing to think of how the simplest of acts allows these children to focus and better themselves in school. I owe a great deal of my success in school to Liberty as well. I graduated high school at the top of my class, but then was awarded one of the largest scholarships in the county. It was a great honor and blessing to receive such an award.
Several of my classmates in high school spent a great deal of time devoted to looking for a way out of Liberty. It was always interesting to see that as time passed, a majority of them came back in some way or another. Small towns like mine allow you to enjoy knowing your neighbors, but having the occasional visit to the “big city” of Houston. In many ways, It’s the best of both worlds.
