Back in high school, I liked to fancy myself a rebel. This not only shone through in my music and makeup choices—I was ""emo"" at one point, by which I mean I wore copious amounts of black eyeliner—but also my politics.
You see, I hail from Park Ridge, Ill., a suburb directly northwest of Chicago. It is a decently picturesque place, home to… well, a lot of rich, white, conservative people (and at one point Hillary Clinton, but that is irrelevant to this article). Although this does not hold true for all, many Park Ridge citizens get nervous when they are anywhere south of the Loop or stumble into the neighboring, lower median income suburb of Niles. (Sorry to those of you who don't understand my Chicago-suburbs humor. Just try to roll with it.)
Luckily, I was raised by two liberal parents who would ask themselves on a daily basis, ""How the hell did we end up here?"" They usually boiled down their life choice to wanting to send my sister and me to good schools. (Shout-out to Maine South High School and its three minority students. You taught me nothing about the real world whatsoever. Go Hawks!)
In a town like this, I did not feel as though I had any other choice than to stick it to the man, who apparently was Howard Frimark, mayor of Park Ridge (God I hope this guy has a Google Alert set up for himself). As such, by the age of 14 I had a pin on my backpack that read ""Can somebody please give Bush a blowjob so we can impeach him?"" which made its debut at my cousin's first communion brunch. My other cousin, who was in the midst of changing her political views to that of her conservative, soon-to-be fiancé, had a better reaction than Bush himself could have provided. Clasping her pearls and raising a hand to her mouth, she gasped ""Oh my!"" over her platter of eggs benedict.
Given UW-Madison's rabble-rousing reputation, it's not surprising I choose to be a Badger. Now I recognize and appreciate that not everyone at this fine institution is liberal, but I expected to find myself in good, left-leaning company, and I have. As such, it can be easy to forget just how liberal I am. I've mistaken those sex-loving, organic-food-buying, recall-demanding badasses as the norm. When I returned to Park Ridge for an internship this summer though, I was reminded otherwise.
Within 24 hours of returning to the northwest suburb, reality slapped me in the face. I was walking Rory, my Portuguese Water Dog—totes got her before Obama got Bo, just saying—when I passed by a house with a ""Don't Tread on Me"" flag flying. I knew this could not be good. A few paces later I found a sign that read, ""Tea Party politics are the best politics"" on the house's lawn. Trying to hold in my vomit, I ripped off my sweatshirt to reveal my ""Pro-Bucky, Pro-Child, Pro-Choice"" shirt. The rebel was back.
Over the course of the summer, I slapped an Obama 2012 bumper sticker onto my car, spoke too loudly in public about my disdain for the Republican presidential hopefuls and made a point to go commando in church. I'm not really sure what that last one has to do with politics, but I felt totally badass flaunting what Christ (read: genetics) gave me.
Now back in Madison, there is little I miss about Park Ridge other than my family, friends and that Portuguese Water Dog. But hey, perhaps there is hope for the 60068. It went for Obama back in 2008, and there is now one whole minority family living on my block. This does not mean I'll be scoping out apartments there after graduation, but maybe I'll feel comfortable enough to wear at least a thong to church... probably not.
Do you also resent your hometown? Have a bitchfest with Jacqueline at jgoreilly@wisc.edu.