Cambridge Through My Eyes Here in Cambridge, Idaho there are things that amaze people every day, although many underestimate what they see. When I see Cambridge, I see a blend of the past and the present. I see beauty beyond description and elegance with no equal. I see a blend of amazing colors, wild#life, tradition, and technology. As seasons pass the loveliness of the rustic town is shown in the best ways. In the winter the light from the snow shines, showing things in a striking way. In the spring the wilderness within the town and the wilderness surrounding it awaken. In the summer plants, animals, and people grow. Each season brings more beauty than the last, each one holding a new surprise. The fall brings the air of warm earthliness that makes a visitor want to curl up and talk with the townspeople. The winter brings times of restlessness in the people longing to invite others over to dinner, in hopes of having an even better time during the holidays than the year before. With the spring comes a sense of awakening and the knowledge that there is new #life. The summer brings times of fireworks in someone’s backyard and parties with the whole town in a backyard. The seasons bring a feeling of being at peace, #life, laughter, and good times. Let's see what the people are like. The children, teens, and adults are always having a good time. The kids and teens persuade the adults to build a hill of snow and sled on it. The adults laugh as they share stories of their childhood and watch the children play. The children laughing as they play at the park and school make a contagiously joyful atmosphere that the adults are pulled into the children’s antics. The air of the town is laid back and good natured. You always get a greeting of warmth and kindness. As Mr. Karl Dahle, a teacher at the Middle-Senior High School says, "The relations here in Cambridge are friendships that are strong and tight knit. People in Cambridge are people that have hearts of gold and full of charity." we are a tightly knit group and will help each other because of our good nature. We accept new members warmly and teach them our traditions. Now, we often learn from those who are new to our tiny town that we have hidden tricks and traditions that we always use. These old traditions are kept by passing them on to the next generation. As Mr. Karl Dahle says, "...town is small and traditions have been instilled and put down from generation to generation." we are close to each other and will not allow our traditions to fade in memory. The people will band together in times of need and keep each other close. We would band together in any situation, the whole town helping one another. If a neighbor was to be short on meat for food and needed more, then one family would help them shoot food as long they did not have to poach. if it came to that there would be at least three families that would help and invite the family with too little meat over for dinner every night after their meat supply ran out. We care for children that belong to others and help the elderly dress. We try our best to stay on the same page as we try to prepare for our future. We stand as one when it comes to the school, the general store, the way that families are always accepting members that are from elsewhere, and other good circumstances. We will stand united against fires, droughts, blizzards, and other bad situations that can befall us. We are close enough to call each other family. All citizens are like family, and in a way we are. The Bodnar family, for instance are related to the Toothman family and the Damons, just as the families making the towns of Salubria and Cambridge were all related by either blood or marriage. We would do anything that could help keep our “family” safe. Then, there is also the wilderness surrounding us and its #life. The wilderness is free to grow and yet restricted from some places. Trees are crowned in gold, red, and orange in the fall and green in the spring and summer. The meadows are green from spring to the middle of fall and the sky is always blue, even during a storm. The wilderness is always blooming with #life, even in the cold of winter, the coolness of fall, the heat of summer, and the mild warmth of spring. The animals are always out and about, the young playing, the older ones on watch or hunting. The forest covers the whole valley that Cambridge is in, and even some of the buildings have part of the wilderness growing on them, not to mention the people. As my grandma says, “The wilderness grows on all of us and lives in us.” We have become like the forest, strong, beautiful, and independent. The wilderness is not just a bunch of trees to those of us here in Cambridge, it is a place of secrets and #life. The wilderness is another part of the wonderfully mountainous town of Cambridge and its elegance. How do the citizens use technology here? The people here embrace technology that is appropriate and necessary to live our lives and we don't overuse it. We use IPads for school and we use trucks, cars, tractors, harvesters, and plows to work on our ranches, farms and homes. We also have cell phones that we all use when appropriate. We use technology as tools to do our jobs and keep our old traditions and begin building new ones. The town that I call home is full of elegance without an equal. The colors of the #life here in Cambridge. The kind, loyal, good, laid back, hard working citizens of the town. The elegance in the untamed wildness of its forested outskirts brings more than the sight it is. The use of modern technology mixed with tradition is odd but it is there and fits in with the rest. All of these pieces make one glorious and elegant little town called Cambridge. In writing my article I needed the assistance of fourteen different people. Three of them were my teachers, one for English 1, another for Speech and Literacy, and the last one for Agriculture 120. Three more of the people that helped me were my mom, my dad, my brother Jason,and my grandmother. The seventh is Mrs. Hanson, an employee at the museum in Cambridge. The other seven are my classmates Lynsey, Valery, Alex, Austin, Blake, JT, and Tony. Beth Damon is a fourteen year old girl of the Freshman class of 2013 graduating in 2017. Although different, being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome she has a dream of owning a business that helps autistic teenagers using writing as well as a music teacher and an author. She hopes to do this after going to either Lewis Clark State University or Boise State University. Her interests include basketball, novel writing, poetry, musical therapy, and music itself.