Asterisk On Surroundings

When you live in the same Northwestern rural community for the first eighteen years of your life, you become amazingly geographically oriented.

One time in 9^th grade, I had to write an essay about how geography had “shaped my personality” and I thought it was the dumbest thing ever, until I realized that my location was probably the biggest part of my life. The landmarks had always been the most consistent thing in my life, staying the same no matter what else was going on, and the climate and natural surroundings had a surprising impact on the way I viewed the world, as well as an influence on the things I loved.

So naturally moving to Oregon for college was the biggest change to ever happen to me. Admittedly, it’s been exactly what I wanted. The thing is, when I moved away from my hometown and all the people in it, I knew I’d only miss a few of them, but until I got here, I’d never considered how much I’d miss the mountains, the extensive evergreen forests, and the miserable, rainy, rocky beaches.

I wanted to escape my life—but not my surroundings.

That being said, I really like Salem, now that I’ve gotten used to it, for just a couple reasons, the main one being Fall.

My hometown doesn’t get “fall”—none of the Peninsula does. After all, we’re super close to the ocean, so we don’t really get seasons. It’s visibly different between summer and winter, but the two just sort of fade into one another, with little difference between them. It all takes place in about a week and a half. Plus, when all the trees are coniferous, there isn’t much of a color change from summer to winter.

In Salem, however, the temperature gradually cools from hot summer days into the cold winter of November. And while this place is a frigid hell hole from November until May, it’s so beautiful in September and October that I almost don’t care about the long winter.

The air smells like apples and the changing leaves light up the entire campus when they’re exposed to the sun. It’s amazing. I never want it to end…

It helps that I’m at a college, surrounded by red-brick buildings and strategically planted trees, but the city planners of downtown Salem put in an unusual number of trees, and the surrounding hillsides bordering the valley are also surprisingly pretty. Half of everything turns red, orange, and yellow, but the more natural coniferous trees stay green, making fall in Salem the most colorful thing I’ve ever experienced.  

The seasons will change, of course, and then I’ll start complaining, but until that point, Salem is beautiful, and I’m glad I’m here.

~Asterisk