I've lived in pretty much the same place my entire life. It's the town where my parents grew up. My grandparents still live here, and my parents are in the next town over. My house is within walking distance of my junior high and my high school. (Well, one of my junior highs and one of my high schools. For staying in the same place, I changed schools an awful lot, but that's a different story entirely.)

This task is oddly timely for me. I've been spending a lot of time in Chicago, since that's where my boyfriend and most of my friends live. It's less than an hour away, but I don't feel the same connection to it as I feel to my hometown.

There are four places that I think of as mine:

My Prison
I've lived in different houses and apartments, but I've never lived more than a few miles from the Joliet Prison. (Which you might recognize from Blues Brothers and prison Break.)



The prison is huge and made out of limestone. It looks quite a bit like a castle surrounded by barbed wire. It was shut down in 2002, and now it's used primarily as a movie set.

My Church
This church is the tallest building in town. You can see it from anywhere in the area. I went to junior high in the school attached to the church, and I live a few blocks from it now.



I'm not religious, but I still love the building. And during our annual town fair, Canal Days, the church sells delicious roasted corn.

Like the prison (and most every large building in town), the church is made of limestone. I've found that when I'm in other cities, I miss being surrounded by large limestone buildings.

My Canal
The Illinois and Michigan Canal runs through town. As I kid, I'd climb up onto the locks that used to regulate its depth. In junior high, I made a mini documentary about the canal that won me a trip to D.C. A couple times a week, I walk down the trail that parallels the canal on my way to the train station.



The trail connects into the expansive network of hiking and bike trails in the Chicago suburbs, but I think of this couple mile stretch as mine.

My Park
My first memory is of this park. I ran in front of a kids on a swing set and busted open my head. In junior high, we would sneak into a deserted part of the park and make trouble. These days, my friends schlep out to the suburbs to this park so we can play four square and hit each other with foam swords.



My town has grown and changed a lot since I was a kid, but these landmarks have always been there. Even if I move somewhere else, I'm sure that these will always be the places that mean home to me.