I'm traveling the 2 weeks in between jobs, to Boston, Chicago, and New York City to see friends. In between, I've stopped by my hometown.

I grew up in the suburbs outside Detroit. “Metro Detroit” we'd say, so people would vaguely know where. Surprisingly, Madonna graduated from my high school. Of it, she said:

When I went to high school, we moved to a suburb that was all white. And we were, a bit, living above of our means. … I just felt like I was with rich people, and I wasn't and I felt out of place. And I felt like they were members of country clubs and they had manicures and they wore nice clothes and I didn't fit in. … Have you ever been to Rochester Hills, Michigan? … I just didn't want to go back. I can't be around basic, provincial-thinking people.

She later pulled back the negativity:

To me it's really important that I came from the Midwest. … I don't think I would be as creative as I am if I'd grown up surrounded by everything at my fingertips. The fact that I came from a small town in the Midwest has a lot to do with the kind of open notebook that I had to start my journey of creativity.

Madonna touches upon a point that struck me upon returning to my hometown: in the US, outside of major cities, you need a car to get anywhere. For children too young to drive, you rely on your family to get around, on their terms. And if they all work, you don't get around.

Hopefully, like Madonna, this restriction has made me a creative person. Though I have yet to really see that.