These Days

I recently have been poking my head around Portland, Or blogs (I spent a summer there interning at a really hip church). And I realize a little something missing from my life. These blogs mainly have a very local feel- that they're connected to businesses and different going-ons around the area. There is a real sense of community there.

I'm in Manassas, VA. It's a little suburb 40 miles outside DC. Sometimes when I get over the traffic and getting lost, I enjoy DC, proper and the immediate surrounding areas. But I do not enjoy Manassas. I am quite honest about that, well, with everyone. How to describe Manassas?

-A lot of trees but nowhere to go to just enjoy nature. (You can drive 30 minutes to visit a certain national park I worked at this summer, with the largest piedmont forest in the national park system.
-Lots of industrial parks.
-A disarming economic gap between certain neighborhoods.
-Lots of the typical chain businesses you'd see in most suburban localities. Not a lot of small, independent businesses last very long here.
-Not a lot of jobs around in non-profit work (although this area needs more non-profits), writing/editing or anything I'm halfway interested in.
-Not a lot to do, unless you're willing to drive out of Manassas.
-Hardly any arts culture scene
-Not a lot of people in their twenties- most of them have bailed by now. Not a big resource of meeting people your own age. Since I've been working at Starbucks, I've met a lot of high schoolers and a lot of people just 1 or 2 years out of high school doing the local college thing.

This area to me is kind of a suburban waste land. But somethings keeping me here. Like if I keep tapping on the ground, fresh floods of water will come streaming through. I know I sound crazy. But I feel like God's not done with me here. This goes beyond being forced to stay due to having no money to live on my own. I feel very heavy in me the need to stay around and make a difference.

I wish I had a community like Portland. It seems so easy to tap into local sources and connect with people who have a similar vision. But Portland doesn't need me. People like me run rampant there. I'm one in a thousand.
Manassas needs me. And I haven't figured out how or why just yet.

But there's something there.

What good DOES Manassas have?

- a cute Old Town area
-a small town feel, where it feels like you know or recognize A LOT of people (comes from your family being there a long time)
-local farms nearby (farmer's market in Old Town on Thursdays and Saturdays)
-two Chipotle's (yes it's chain, but I LOVE it)
-better bike riding roads than Newport News
-driving around there on a sunny, breezy day feels so nice
-much more low-key and laid-back than other parts of Northern Virginia
-For a town with barely any arts culture, there's sure a lot of interesting, eclectic people to run into if you're around Starbucks a lot (which I am)
-a very small community-oriented missions-oriented church I'm involved in (it's my home church I grew up in, and it's not perfect and sometimes I can only take the charismatic stuff in doses, but I really enjoy being part of it)
-potential for non-profits to thrive
-potential in general