When I first moved to Oberlin, I really did not know what to expect. My mom had told me about how cool the town was, and that there was a bunch of weird people up there who looked like the kind of people I hung out with. Now that I think of it, that quote by my mom seems kind of mean, but whatever. The first time I walked into town, I saw a man in a blue dress with long brown hair. At first I thought it was a woman, but I was wrong. The man was walking down the street with a book bag on his back; I think he was a college student. He made me realize that what my mom had said about the town was true – it was weird.

The next day I met Katelin, Darren, Gregg and Robert and asked them why Oberlin was so weird. Robert replied, “Oberlin is and always has been strange, but the people here just get used to it – you’ll eventually do the same.” Gregg said it got even worse when College started, because then there were a lot more people in town. Not really understanding that much, I kept asking them questions about Oberlin. We sat in the bandstand all day just talking about Oberlin – how much the schools stink and how we didn’t want to go back. It was hot that day so we appreciated the cool shade that the bandstand provided. I personally couldn’t grasp why a man was walking around the park blowing huge bubbles to weird music, why there were people running around the park doing ballet, and why there was a yoga class right behind the bandstand.

During the rest of the summer, I met more and more people from this group of friends. Every day we sat in front of Gibson’s Bakery and just hung out. The guys would sometimes skateboard, but we always went back to Gibson’s because security would chase us elsewhere. We always tried to skate at a bunch of different locations, and we even named a few spots of reference for our friends. We skated at the AAA, the gazebo, the “Octagon” and many others but we still got kicked out of every one.

People around the town who saw me every day soon started wondering who I was. I ended up talking to many of the older people who are always about town. I especially remember talking to Charlie for the first time. Charlie is an adult who had a hard childhood – as a kid growing up he used to see his mother do heroin and other drugs in front of him. When he became a teenager he basically raised himself. He has many interesting stories to tell. When we first met, we sat for about an hour in front of Gibson’s. Once we kind of got introduced to each other, we talked about life and how we can make the best of it. Hearing about Charlie’s hard life growing up was interesting; it made me feel very fortunate not to have to go through what he did when he was my age. Now whenever I see Charlie in town I always stop what I’m doing to talk with him for a bit.

I really liked Oberlin when I first moved here, but over time it’s gotten boring. I always want to skateboard but I know that I will either get chased by security or get arrested and brought to the police station where my parents will have to pick me up. A woman named Judy once raised a lot of money over the summer from businesses and from us local skaters in town for a skate park that we could go to, so we didn’t have to get into trouble all the time. She even took her idea to city hall, but was rejected. We skateboarders were deeply frustrated – we were so close to getting a park, but didn’t at the end. Judy paid us back the money she could, and she still had some left over. A friend came up with the idea that we should all buy new boards with the money she had, since a lot of it was money that we had contributed out of pocket. Judy liked this idea and the skateboarders in town got new boards from Speed Freaks. Judy also paid for 30 Gravity Games tickets and handed them out to us. It was really cool to meet an adult in Oberlin who actually wanted us to skate and who fought hard for us so that we could have a good time in Oberlin.

Oberlin in my mind is a peaceful town, but it isn’t very fun for teenagers. Many of us just spend our time getting into trouble with the cops in town because there is nothing else to do. Nothing exciting ever happens here. I have learned to accept the fact that this town is weird and that I’ll never be able to skate anywhere. Socially, Oberlin is actually a great town, because of all the different races that are unified. I only wish that it were more exciting and fun for us kids. Until the day that the city finds a way to make the city more enjoyable for people of all ages, I will continue to feel the same way that almost every kid my age feels about Oberlin.Tyler Horstman is a ninth-grader at Oberlin High School. Assistance in writing this essay was provided by the Community-Based Writing Program at Oberlin College. For information about this program, please contact anne.trubek@oberlin.edu