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This Is Us
Don’t Marry the Nice Guy
Why settle for a pushover when you can have someone who holds you accountable?
Every year, my family loads up our Jeep and makes the seven-hour trip to my tiny hometown in upstate New York. I have deep roots in this town — it’s where both sets of my grandparents grew up and where much of my family still lives.
It’s quaint and picturesque except for the constant reminders of generational poverty like the rows of busted-out cars in the front yard of a single-wide trailer home with clear plastic taped over its windows. Each year when we visit, I feel surer that it’s a place I could never live.
This year, on Black Friday, I took my kids into town to peruse the aisles of Amish cheese, honey, hats, and hammers in the general store where my mom works. I was browsing the selection of dried soup mixes when I got that spooky feeling like someone is standing directly behind you.
“Boo.”
I turned around to see a man several inches taller than me with rosy cheeks and a big smile. He wasn’t instantly familiar to me, but his voice sparked something deep in the inner recesses in my brain.
It was a shock when I figured out that I was face to face with my old high school boyfriend. His eyes were the…
