Where am I? I am geographically in Aurora, Nebraska home of the Huskies.

 I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here. Aurora has been my home since I was two day home. It’s where I came after I was born in York. My family has lived in my current house since a few years before I was born. Most of my friends say my house it really big but growing up we barely had any room. With both of my older brothers that have booming loud voices you could never get far enough away in the house to block them out. You could be clear up in the attic and they would be in the living room two floors down and you could still hear them talking. My sister and I have loud voices also, but I like to think that we can’t be heard from that far away.

Most people refer to my house as the Christmas house because the trim colors are red and green, the green isn’t a Christmas green though thankfully, it’s more of a light olive green. My house is about 120 years old and has tons of little character in it. My mom is also an amazing decorator and loves to bring out the old little things in the house so people notice them.

When my house was built a man was building for his lover who was forbidden to see him by her father, she was forced to move to California right when the project began, but the entire time she was there they sent love letters back and forth expressing their love and finally she was able to come back shortly after the house was finished. They saved all of the letters and when I was little my mom found them hidden in the storage room in our attic. She copied them and put them in a nice binder altogether. She tracked down the descendents of the couple and contacted them. The family knew exactly what she was talking about and so she sent another copy of the letters to them. A few years after the exchange of the letters they came down to see the house and be able to look at all the detail they talked about in the letters to make sure the woman was getting the best house her lover could make her.

My house resides in Aurora, Nebraska obviously and I am very proud of my town. Ever since I was little I remember every year they improve by updating or creating some new recreational thing, the skate park, disc golf course, splash pad, PAC, football field, softball complex, and soon the pool. Aurora always strives to be better and it encourages us kids to do the same. In a community that wants to make sure it can offer something for everyone it makes the kids feel loved and we try harder in our athletics and academics. If our community was falling apart and going downhill I’m sure it would affect our dedication to do well in school. We wouldn’t care if we won our athletic competitions because our town would be supporting us as much as they are now. 

Whatever you do in this town whether it’s winning some small prize at the county fair or making it to some event on a national level you know you’ll make it in the paper and be recognized for it, as you walk around town there’s no doubt that people will congratulate you on your hard work and it’s a great feeling. Now if you would live in a larger town even Grand Island you wouldn’t be recognized like that and most people wouldn’t even know who you were. That’s one of the perks of a small town, everyone knows you and knows who your family is, that can also be a problem sometimes like when you get a speeding ticket and it’s in the paper. Nobody will congratulate you for that piece of paper. But even knowing that my grandma can see when I’m breaking the law on the highway and I’ll probably get a call from her shortly after she reads it I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else but here. I counting on Aurora to keep up with the development and improvements so I can move back and send my kids to school here.

                I live in the south eastern part of Nebraska, only 56 minutes from Memorial Stadium (timed it with my brothers) and you can count on our family being represented there every Saturday that there is a home game. We are Husker raised and there is no other way. My brothers almost didn’t let my sister’s wedding happen when they found out that her husband was an Oklahoma Sooner fan, but now that we aren’t playing each other anymore the Christmas celebrations aren’t so loud with the debating and arguing about who has the better team. 

I wouldn’t dream of living in any other state than Nebraska. I don’t like big busy places I’m more of a gravel road type of girl. Interstates are for the people with nice cars they don’t want to get a little bit of dirt on, I prefer my car (Spike) to have some mud on him, he looks better that way.

I love my home.

I love my town.

I love my state.