A road traveled tells a lot about a person.
My journey between home and school has been a road I’ll never forget, literally. I have the 227-mile trek memorized like the back of my hand. There isn’t much to it — one stop at Kwik Star in Maquoketa, Iowa that represents a halfway point for food and gas, two highways and three exits. There’s a lot of corn fields too; those are hard to miss.
I remember the first couple times I made the trip on a visit day and freshman orientation. The unfamiliar territory felt so far away and much longer than the three-and-a-half hour duration. But it soon became familiar. By the end of my freshman year, I no longer needed help from a GPS to remember the key highway exits that connected me from I-74 to U.S Highway 61.
As I made my final round-trip drive home and back over Easter weekend, I reflected on the past four years of the blacktop with white and yellow lines that separated Peoria and Barneveld, Wisconsin.
I’ve had two different cars in that time period. I’ve driven in the scorching 90 degree heat after spring semesters with no air conditioning in a 2001 Buick Regal and in winter’s white snowfall with only front-wheel drive in a 2006 Chrysler Sebring.
I’ll always remember my favorite landmarks to look at on the drive, like the big, beautiful beige and taupe colored house in the middle of nowhere that looks as peaceful as can be. Another house has a bright yellow door amongst white trim and blue shutters.
My route sums up the Midwestern driving experience perfectly in a short amount of time. There are various farms with cattle and horses along the way. I loved crossing the Mississippi River that connected me from Iowa to Wisconsin. It felt like home every time, even though I still had an hour left of my drive at that point.
There were some tough drives I’ve had to deal with, like leaving finals week early one winter to make it home to see my grandpa one last time in the hospital before he passed. Another time, I left home knowing that would likely be the last time I would see my childhood dog before her health failed. Every time I left that driveway, I had to fight back the emotions of leaving my parents, brother and dogs once again.
I can’t count how many times I’ve made the road trip, but that doesn’t matter. What truly matters is how my life has changed in those four years. Each drive home after finishing a long year of school represented another year of personal growth. My time here in Peoria has been the best four years of my life, and it’s become a second home to me.
The friends and memories will stretch far beyond the amount of miles that separate myself from the Hilltop after I graduate.
I’ll be back in Peoria at some point in the future, but I’m excited to see where the next road takes me.
