Going and Homecoming | Written by Demo Gakidis

I wanted to get out of Watertown. I never felt as though it were for me. Too small. Too boring. I believed I was destined for more. My parents moved into town only a few years before I was born – I never felt the generational pull to the town others had. Went to school in Watertown, was an okay student. Probably could have tried harder, though. Maybe I would have left earlier. My friends were good. We’d drive around town. Invent games just to keep ourselves entertained. Pulled together by a need to get out.

I eventually left. And I came back. And I left again. And, still, I come back sometimes. I know the old adage is that you don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. Well, Watertown is never truly gone. In fact, it’s very much the same. Shocking, even, in its sameness. Every time I expect this miraculous change to exist and it doesn’t happen. I change. I’ve gone off to college, secured a full time job, left the country for a bit. In all those times, I’ve come back thinking, oh yes can’t wait to see how different everything is. But it’s always the same. I’m different. Sure, maybe shops have closed down or new ones opened up. Or more houses are being built in what was once just land you hardly noticed existed. But, at the heart of it, Watertown is still exactly the same. Sleepy. Quaint. Familiar.

So, if you want to leave Watertown, go out. Leave. Discover the world outside of Watertown. It’s massive. It’s unpredictable. It’s scary. But, it’s yours to see. When you lived the life you dreamed for yourself on the shores of Lake Winnemaug years and years ago, come back to Watertown. Connect with friends. Drive down the little roads you used to every day. Get a bagel from your favorite breakfast place. Marvel about how much time has passed. Watertown will be there, waiting for you.

Demosthenes (Demo) Gakidis is lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and works as a Research Coordinator at PSTAR (Program on Sexuality, Technology, Action Research) at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Connecticut in 2013 and a master's degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018.