My True Home, Vermont

Being a Vermonter is spending six months of the year wearing a jacket.

Being a Vermonter is running outside in nothing but leggings and a sweater, thinking it’s springtime when it hits 47 degrees.

Being a Vermonter is laying flat on your back in the 15 inches of snow, watching the thick flakes tumble down from the sky.

Being a Vermonter is being shocked at the size of all other cities.

Being a Vermonter is knowing three out of seven people you pass on the street.

Being a Vermonter is playing on the UVM Green as a preschooler, already toddling around in a snowsuit.

Being a Vermonter is biking miles and miles with your best friends every weekend, splashing through puddles as the lilacs in your neighborhood bloom.

Being a Vermonter is hiking Camel’s Hump and Mount Philo and being so used to the Adirondacks in the distance you forget to take pictures.

Being a Vermonter is going to a stadium and realizing it seats more people than live in Burlington.

Being a Vermonter is baking brownies and crunching through the snow to give them to your neighbors.

Being a Vermonter is reading the newspaper and joining webinars with Becca Balint at school; it’s marching in the Pride Parade while the wind rips through Church Street.

Being a Vermonter is figuring out how to protect Vermont while Vermont figures out how to protect you.

Being a Vermonter is sleepaway at Camp Hochelaga, the stars tinged with sunscreen and waves.

Being a Vermonter is swimming in Lake Champlain every summer, darting through the emerald swathes of pine trees on your best friend’s motorboat.

Being a Vermonter is having to drive to Plattsburgh to go to a decent department store.

Being a Vermonter is not knowing a life without an autumn filled with fire.

Being a Vermonter is shouting the words to ‘Stick Season’ by Noah Kahan out the bus windows as the brown and gray world disappears alongside the highway.

Being a Vermonter is flying anywhere warmer than here over February break.

Being a Vermonter is still believing in Champ.

Being a Vermonter is so much more than muddy springs and bonfire falls and freezing lakes that feel better than the ocean. 

Being a Vermonter is community and love and beauty all 365 days of the year. 

Being a Vermonter is poetry and nonfiction all in one. 

Being a Vermonter…well, you’re a Vermonter, aren’t you?

Why don’t you tell me.