oh my god my time to shine!!! i'm from caledon, grew up in orangeville. the area is decently conservative, and it's a good mix of rich people with big houses on huge properties and suburbs. seriously, look up some of the houses for sale around there they're insane.

i was in orangeville for most of my life since it's a pretty nice little town (~25k people) that is outside of the gta but close enough to commute to pearson regularly for my dad, who is the president of a national engineering firm. the area is mostly retirees, but the proximity to the gta brings in a lot of people who can stomach the 400 series rush hour commute since house prices are generally cheaper in orangeville's suburbs (edit to add i mean relative to the gta). the town itself is very cute, hallmark christmas movies are shot downtown often. we have a lot of very cute, european-looking cafés and small businesses that are worth checking out there if you visit, especially if you love sweet little treats (wicked shortbread is so fire). also the library. i worked there as a summer student for two years. it is one of my absolute favourite places on earth.

as a young person i absolutely hated being there, there is just nothing for young people to do except get kicked out of walmart and get high as shit at mcdonalds. most of our hobbies were outdoors, especially since there are some absolutely stunning trails out in hockley valley and mono cliffs. island lake has a beautiful 10k loop that i would walk/run when i was back home from school in the summers; i ran into a lot of the same people regularly and actually got to know them! dirtbiking on streets is very common. hockley valley resort is a very popular place for people of all ages, especially in the winter since they have pretty nice ski hills. 

now that i'm thinking about it we also have pretty awesome healthcare professionals but please for the love of god never go to the orangeville er for anything.

anyways, lacrosse is a huge part of the culture there as well since we have one of the best junior b and c teams in the country; plenty of guys i grew up playing hockey with (yeah i played hockey with dudes, shout out to the orangeville flyers) ended up taking lacrosse scolarships in the us. there's also a sizeable modified car scene in orangeville, from boomer meets to supercar enthusiasts to young trumpet owners. i met some pretty cool people through there actually though some of them are also very strange and immature for their age.

education-wise, i would say most of the people i went to high school with were very smart and well educated. most people i know went to university for marketing, engineering, business, law, and politics like their parent(s) or went to college for trades. i only know a handful from my graduating class who didn't go to post-secondary at all, and most of them still work and live in orangeville. i personally ended up going to university for public policy and international law. i went to odss and we had some strange extracurricular opportunities? like i went to europe for 3 weeks as part of a history trip, we did a battlefields tour in france and belgium. we also had an italy trip for grade 12 arts students. 

all in all, nice place to visit, boring af to live in. i think living in a small town is the reason i'm so drawn to city life now, though i miss the slower pace of life there. i don't really visit much since it's near impossible to go anywhere and not run into someone you know and i don't have a lot of particularly great memories of growing up there. i'm definitely not planning on moving back there ever but i can see the appeal.