Has it really been that long?

I was so much younger than my cousins that I don't have memories of us playing together as children.  They lived in Iowa so we only got to visit once a year; we didn't get to many graduations or weddings, I never got to go to the hospital after one of my cousins had a baby.  That lack of family connection has always been a loss for me, especially because I feel so close to my immediate family.That said, I am completely in love with my hometown.  I always have been, when we were kids and my parents would talk about moving I would cry and cry, I just KNEW I'd never be as happy in some other town.  My Grandma Lois often reminds me that instead of just moving closer to family, I told her I would move Wilson closer to our family.  She thought this was so cute but when I think of it, whole families are the reason I love Wilson so much.  Families in Wilson have been there forever.  Everyone is a cousin to someone and the parents of my friends had many of the same teachers we had.  They went to the same high school building and shared the same traditions in that very town.  I've wanted to be a real part of that history as long as I can remember.
When I was a senior in high school, that dream came true for me; thirteen years ago this weekend I was Wilson's 1997 Homecoming Queen.  I know people joke about the homecoming queen but to me it was so special.  The two girls who were nominated with me were Joni and Tara, two girls I had known since we moved to Wilson in 1986.  They were both pretty and kind girls who had lots of friends and came from families just as special as they were, both families always treated me as one of their own. 
It would have been no surprise if either of them had been chosen as queen that year, but I was, and I'm so proud and thankful of that!  It was a dream come true for me, not just because I love being the center of attention or because I had always wanted to be a princess, or because it made me feel pretty and popular but because from that moment on, I cemented a place in Wilson's history.  I don't have a common last name or a family tree in Wilson but I felt officially adopted that night.
I think that will forever by my favorite childhood memory in a sea of great childhood memories!