We are who we are, and that is an ever-changing evolution that we will always be going through.

Someone called me a “townie” in class a few weeks ago. I was not sure if I should be offended or not.

Yes, I grew up in the 53211 zip code. My formative years were spent with Milwaukee as my playground. My friends and I would take the bus to Rochambo and spend our afternoons lunching at Beans and Barley. I would not have wanted it any other way.

I love the fact that I grew up in Shorewood. And if I could get my way, I would love to raise a family there as well.

Being called a “townie” made me think a lot of things. I wondered if perhaps I was some sort of failure for attending the college that was only blocks away from where I grew up. I started to wonder if I had made some sort of mistake. But then I realized my mistake was moving away from here in the first place.

I thought that all I wanted was to be as far away as possible from where I grew up. I thought being as far away as I could be from the setting of teenage rumors and the pettiness would somehow make everything better for me.

Well, it turns out I was wrong. This is home. It always will be. Just because I am in Milwaukee doesn’t make me any less of a person. It also doesn’t mean that I am still the person I was as I grew up here.

My friends from high school all know me as Tory. That seems like centuries ago. Even my closest friends who had a hard time transitioning from calling me Tory to Victoria now call me Victoria.

I am a whole different person now. I love the fact that I am always evolving, changing and trying to find who I am and what I am doing.

I see people that I went to high school with on campus all the time. The problem is they avert their eyes as if they never saw me. It shouldn’t really bother me, but it does. I try to make eye contact and form a smile. We are not in high school anymore! Maybe we didn’t get along back then, when we were different people on different agendas, but there is no need to ignore each other. I would hate to think that these people still think the worst of me, believe all of the ancient rumors and hold petty grudges against me. Maybe, they are thinking the same of me, that I am holding their former selves against them.

Truth is I am not Tory anymore. I am not who I was years ago, months ago or even yesterday. I wouldn’t expect you to be the same either. I don’t expect some awkward chitchat from you, but we can still say hello. There is nothing wrong in that. We are who we are, and that is an ever-changing evolution that we will always be going through.

I don’t care what you thought of me in high school. I don’t care what I thought of you in high school. It simply doesn’t matter. We should at least to be able to say hello.

After all, we all came from the same place. But look at how far we’ve come.

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