(I wrote this a little over a year ago, just revisited it, and have to acknowledge what a wise and sassy little broad I was.  So here it is, Universe, for your fastidious perusal.)

I love Bozeman.  Have for a long time.  Probably will for a longer time.  Back—and notably glad to be back.

However, something I have noticed since before I left, and moreso since I have been back, is how desperate everybody seems to be to be on the right side of Bozeman history.  The minute I rolled into town from Bishop with California plates a buddy warned me that I needed to get those bad boys changed to Montana ones as soon as possible.  The insinuation being that I wouldn’t want people to see that I had arrived from California.  But really.  I moved here from a town of 4000 people, surrounded by 14,000’ granite, alpine lakes and mules, four hours from the nearest airport.  Bozeman is more likely to citify me than I it.  My husband went to the post office in our first few weeks here and a lady approached him in his truck and screamed at him.  The question I have is how do you know anyone else’s story?  I am 39 years old and lived in California for a whopping three years.  But somehow that makes me Californian?  I am no more Californian that I am Montanan.  A colleague who moved here seven years ago (2015) told me that all the new arrivals are really “changing the character” of the place…. So does that include him?

People from all over the place want to feel like their arrival on this plot of earth was a great gift to Montana, and that when they arrived it was the Narnia to end all Narnias.  These people feel like their winsome spirits are synergistic with the space.  (Mine sure is!)  Conversely, the supposition being that every soul who arrived after them only went on to degrade the place.  There seems to be no insight into how their relentless instagramming and general spray to their friends “back east” could have contributed to changes!  So odd!  So NIMBY!  I moved here in 2005, so do I get a Golden OG for my mantle, or does California negate that indefinitely?!  Asking for a friend!

I feel like moving to California and returning with California plates has actually turned out to be such a good thing.  It has helped me to see the illogic of the Bozeman disdain for new people.  When the gal yelled at my husband at the Post Office, I thought, wow the assumption!  He could have been born and raised in Gallatin County, and be back in town from CA visiting his childhood home.  He could have been passing through on his way to Minnesota for all she knew.  Of course that’s not the truth of it, but the fanatical lady had no idea, and I cannot imagine accosting a stranger based on some story you made up in your head.

As far as I can tell, Bozeman is still magical and charming.  It’s changing, but everywhere is changing.  I lived in beautiful Salt Lake City and people complain constantly how much more crowded it is now than it ever was (I promise, you can still ski untracked snow in the Wonderful Wasatch at noon almost every day of the ski season).  You could find somewhere delightful that hasn’t ever changed and move there, but then by way of moving there you’ll be the one ruining it!  As far as I can tell, the only thing that isn’t wonderful about Bozeman anymore are the subset of people with a MAGA (MBGA?) mentality who want to close the borders to those behind them and sit around loudly kibitzing about how much better things were when they showed up.  I think some wise people exist out there, who can sit in traffic and acknowledge “I am the traffic,” who can look at a crowded ski hill and think “how great to live in a place where so many people love to have fun.”  I think these are the people looking for solutions to housing, parking, multiuse trail issues, and who are proactively trying to preserve what they most love about Bozeman. How wonderful to live in a place where everyone so badly wants to belong.  So, cheers to them and cheers to us! It feels good to be home.