In Defense of Springfield

Article and Graphic by Katie Chandler

It's easy to hate Springfield. It's not the big city with something new and bold happening with a crowd you can blend into. And it's not a small town where the car next to you is your neighbor at every red light. Springfield exists somewhere between too much and too little but is often still thought of as not enough. But before you say you hate it and can't wait to leave, before you dig your heels in and die on this hill, I have just a few questions.

Are you homesick? 

I know Springfield doesn't have that Mexican restaurant where you and your friends have spent all significant moments celebrating. It doesn't have that one specific regional gas station where the workers let you take free Slurpees. Or the birthday cake your mom always gets you. It does not have the family you love or the friends you grew up with. It doesn't have any of the things you forgot you'd miss when you packed up everything.

My second question is, are you lost? 

If you tell people you're moving from Springfield, it sounds like you have a plan even when you don't. A fresh start feels like a do-over, and a new town is a new crowd you can blend into. It's hard to keep figuring things out when you're constantly comparing the journey of your peers to yourself. If we started at the same time, how are they here, and I'm there? If you leave, can you buy some more time while you "get adjusted"? No one can judge your job if they don't live close enough to know what you're doing. 

My final question is, have you given Springfield a chance to be Springfield?

I know bad things happen here, and the horror stories can be real but what about the good? Have you tried to love Springfield for what it is instead of what it isn't? It can't hold you when you're scared of the dark or make your favorite meal just how you like it. But it can make you laugh and be filled with love. It can be nights with your friends bouncing around downtown or quiet days by the pond at Nathaniel Green, where people fly kites. Its pastries from Tea Bar and Bites, Pizza from Pappos, and everything in between. And it has you. You put Springfield in a box, and you're putting yourself into a box. 

You're free to make Springfield whatever you want it to be if you take the time to look. You don't have the built-in tour guide of friends and families to show you this is the ice cream shop we go to after we win games. Or this is the movie theater we stick candy into. But you get to control and decide where these places and moments can be, and it's beautiful if you let it happen. If you give it time and you give yourself time. Time to explore and figure out who you and this town are and what you mean to each other. 

I won't beg you to stay here. Maybe you will find all these new places and be off to the next place to find new adventures. But when that time comes, I hope you think of Springfield and smile, thinking of all the pockets of love and peace you found instead of reminiscing, counting down the days until you left.