A town should share pride and joy, work should be put into it, blood sweat and tears- it should all show. A town should be thought of as a fond home or a kind memory. Togetherness is important and togetherness should be in every town. A town should be real, real love, truthful people, joined spirits and connecting hearts. Often a town doesn’t meet these hopeful expectations, I wish it could be said Greenwood was as big as a star as everyone smiles and says it is. Instead Greenwood holds fake people who pretend to be do gooders, about the only thing we share spirit in may be football but for those who don’t are outcasted, unimportant. We only connect with those close to us, our status, how much money we make, where you shop and what you wear, these are important to us. In counting, our community only comes together two, possibly three times a year, it’s small and we all know each other but this seems to be more gossip than genuine time as a town. Our buildings are run-down, outdated, we need to show some effort to move forward but it seems we’re stuck in the past. I do not take pride in Greenwood and though some memories of my town I hold dear to my heart there is more dirt to clean than what’s already washed.

Greenwood needs change. We need to move on, we need to join together, branch out. There’s too many fake asshats on this planet why should our small town be home to a handful of them?

Our school is a big problem, not just the school itself but the people in it. The students and teachers can’t seem to figure it out, we’re lost and preying on each other. I should be able to rely on teachers for help and support rather it be with grades or bullying. I can’t. I should be able to walk the halls confident and without the judging eyes of my peers, people who want to bring me down, needless drama. I can’t. We get bullied everyday, people will cry alone because nobody will help them in this town, teachers will turn their cheeks or a lot of the time make it worse. Parents are detached-letting their children run wild. We’re lying to ourselves. These are problems we need to face and before it’s too late. It truly is shocking to me we haven’t had a death or accident yet.

Maybe us children, teenagers, young adults would get along more if we had more option? Here in Greenwood we have none. About all we have is pizza, mexican and Mc. Donalds, nothing fun to do, we’re too old for the park and eating the same food all the time does get boring. I for one would love a social place to go to, instead for fun most of us will go on late night Walmart runs. Honestly though, is this all our options are? Schools about the most we do to get out and see fellow classmates. Anytime other than that might be the fair once a year, Fourth of July at the square, or the trail for Halloween, possibly the car show. As a ‘tight knit’ community how is this all we have? Why can’t we come together, all of us? New, a refresh, a need, let’s bring in something we can enjoy but let’s not stop there.

This rundown town needs something to bring it back from the dead, bring some color in rip down and rebuild. We’re stuck where we’re at and it would bring great joy just to see so many things made anew and updated. Speaking for myself and some of my buddies we crave pretty things, can’t this be said for most? If we could move forward, beyond what we have and possibly have a “redo” maybe people/teens wouldn’t be so hell-bent on getting out of here as soon as they can!

Perhaps though, it’s not the material part of the town that fails us; possibly it’s the people in the town that sinks us. As iv’e said the school and a large majority of students and teachers just flat out suck, we all get this from somewhere. As much as I could blame social media it isn’t just that it’s the parents too! If kids arn’t getting their bad (and good of course) qualities from who they’re surrounded with than who? If their guardian isn’t paying attention to social media or what a child is going through or who they’re mixed up with than what does that say of our adults? Where does so much hate come from in our small town, so much hate for each other and even ourselves! Is it ourselves corrupt, each other, all surrounded and feeding off one another negatively instead of positively. Is it our upbringing, how we were raised in this town? We gossip and lie and everywhere there seems to be drama because we are a small town-we can’t stay out of each other’s business? Why!

I wish we could turn around, maybe we could. I want us to understand, acknowledge and address what needs to be acknowledged and addressed. We need to enforce love and be kind, it would simply be better for everyone wouldn’t it? Why don’t we understand dislike gets us nowhere and we can reach out and show heart to more than just those we care about. Let’s join to better our town in expanding and building, moving on while we can at the same same build up each other and light a fire in everyone. It starts with us. We have to get better before we could ever expect our town to better; even if we had everything up to date and polished buildings what of this if a handful or more of our people are still rotten?

A town is its people, a town will reflect their community. A broken community will be inhabited in a broken town. Better is what we want but how can us, the community expect so much with so much distrust and disloyalty? We need blood, sweat and tears, we need it to show. We need to love each other and accept our differences, we are all human. Our town should come together with pride and joy, we need to be making the best and joyful memories possible in our town. Above all Greenwood needs to learn to be true and connect with it’s people as they tune their hearts back to their town and our peers.