Where Am I?
I am a Skorniak, my ancestors are
from Ireland, Germany, and Poland. My grandma will sometimes teach us how to
say certain words in German. Whenever anyone sneezes she says ‘bless you’ in
like seven different languages. It’s fun. Whenever I would visit my great
grandma at the nursing home, she would talk to us in Polish. She would teach me
basic words like dog, tree, and girl and would always laugh when I couldn’t say
it right.
Throughout my seventeen years of
life I feel like I’ve already been everywhere, but at the same time I feel like
I still have yet to be anywhere. I’ve
spent my life growing up in two different towns, thirty minutes away from each
other. The settings of both towns were
very different but yet still similar in a way.
St. Libory was where I lived first
- a very small, boring town. In fact, it was so small and boring that we called
it, along with everyone who lived there; the village of St. Liboring. We had a
very small three bedroom house with a big fenced in backyard. All of us kids used to play all sorts of
games in that backyard. That’s where we made some of the best and some of the
worst memories together. I will never forget how the girls always seemed to
compete for dad’s attention. We all wanted to show him that we were just as
tough as him. I think that I won those competitions every time because I was
never afraid to get my hands dirty. We have countless home videos of my dad and
I working outside on the car or in a big bucket of fishing bait.
Another memory from that town was
never having very far to walk to get to one of my friends’ house. The farthest
one of my friends lived from me was a little less than a mile. We would always
get together a couple of friends and play “Ghost in the Graveyard” at the local
cemetery. I always loved playing this because I was an adrenaline junkie so
playing in a cemetery at night time was really fun. Since we were all no
younger than 10, we were content with almost anything. Just riding bikes around
or playing in someone’s backyard was all that we needed to have tons of fun.
My parents were (and still are) the
best parents a girl could ask for. They taught my siblings and me so many great
lessons and morals that we will grow up and teach our own kids. One of those
lessons is to respect authority. There would always be consequences whenever we
disobeyed one of them. Although we didn’t have chores (thank the Lord), we
still loved to help my mom with dishes and my dad in the yard. Sometimes after
school I would get on my bike and ride over a block to visit my dad at work.
All the guys there were like family to us and still are, literally (my dad’s
brother in law and his two brothers). I always looked for something to do in
the corn bins or in the big shed.
When we moved to Aurora, not much
changed. I finished out 2nd grade in St. Libory and then started 3rd
grade the next year at Aurora. I remember feeling excited to start at a new
school and meet new friends but sad that I had to leave all of my friends in
St. Libory. My first teacher at Aurora Public Schools was Mrs. Leech, a 3rd
grade teacher. She was so nice and welcoming! I didn’t have a very tough time
finding friends here because everyone was so friendly so I felt like I fit
right in.
This town is still small enough to
be classified as a “small town”. I love it because it seems like everyone knows
everyone and all in all, it makes the community so much stronger. Everyone
knows the cops in town and whether they’re nice and lenient when it comes to
giving tickets or not. You can just say “the hill” and people know exactly what
you’re saying.
I feel like the way that I was
raised has really influenced they way I carry myself now. I don’t necessarily
care what people think about me, but I care enough to carry on the Skorniak
name with a good reputation. I love
living in small towns. Whenever I go visit family in bigger cities I’m amazed
at how easily they find their way around so easily. When I grow up, I want to
raise my family in a town just like this.
