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<p>PITTSTON &#8212; Ellen Siracuse is 26 years old and loves living in Northeastern Pennsylvania.</p><p>That&#8217;s a remarkable statement, given the typical malaise that has tainted this region for generations.</p><p>Here in good old NEPA, we don&#8217;t always get the goodness that is our home area. We don&#8217;t see the positives &#8212; we tend to dwell on the exaggerated negatives.</p><p>Too many of us apologize for hailing from NEPA.</p><p>Not Ellen Siracuse.</p><p>Here are some reasons I like Ellen and hope to get to know more about her.</p><p>On her blog &#8212; theoxfordguide.wordpress.com &#8212; Ellen says stuff like this:</p><p>&#8220;I live in a culturally enriched town with several universities, tons of delicious restaurants and bakeries along with unique shops and boutiques and a pretty eventful social calendar. This isn&#8217;t a Miranda Lambert song, we have more than one stop light and not everyone is married by 22. But it is a small town and, if you end up in the police blotter, people will know. For some reason, my little town I was born and raised in and eventually returned to is the bane of existence for most. It makes people unhappy, they &#8216;can&#8217;t wait to get out.&#8217; I assure you it isn&#8217;t the town that&#8217;s terrible.&#8221;</p><p>Ellen admits her goal was to escape NEPA, thinking the grass must be greener in places like Manhattan or Chicago or Philadelphia. She couldn&#8217;t find a job, so she stayed here. We&#8217;re better for that and, I think, Ellen feels the same way.</p><p>Ellen has a huge interest in fashion, the original intent of her blog. She still writes about fashion. She was frustrated by not being able to put NEPA in her rear view mirror, but here&#8217;s how she feels about staying here.</p><p>&#8220;As a senior in college, I applied everywhere in the tri-state area. I didn&#8217;t get the jobs in the big city; I just got three job offers at home. At the time, I was frustrated, angry, upset, but in the end, it works out the way it&#8217;s supposed to. It always does.&#8221;</p><p>Ellen says people often get &#8220;stuck in a rut&#8221; and go to the same places, do the same things and find themselves in the same bar every weekend with the same people. She says, &#8220;It just seems that there is nothing to do, but that&#8217;s how we perceive it. There are so many great things to do in my Northeastern Pennsylvania town.&#8221;</p><p>And then she said this, which hit home with me:</p><p>&#8220;Cause I don&#8217;t want to get stuck in here when I am 34 just talking about high school years.&#8221;</p><p>Ellen sees NEPA for what it is and its people for who they are. She sees the &#8220;terrible people with small mind mentality and hatred running through their blood.&#8221; And she sees &#8220;people who are twice my age who act 10 years younger than me.&#8221;</p><p>And then Ellen said this:</p><p>&#8220;Your life is what you make of it. Surround yourself with culture and art and the love of others and I promise you, there will always be a sense of fulfillment.&#8221;</p><p>Did I tell you Ellen is 26?</p><p>Ellen loves to &#8220;shop local.&#8221; She &#8220;adores&#8221; downtown Scranton. &#8220;Instead of bashing, we should help build up NEPA,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Many years ago, I was a member of Leadership Wilkes-Barre. I served on a committee that helped form Junior Leadership Wilkes-Barre. The goal of the junior program was to educate high school students about their home area. We wanted to show them the good that is here so that when they finished their schooling, they would, at the very least, consider living here, staying here, raising yet another good family here.</p><p>Ellen didn&#8217;t participate in Junior Leadership, but she exemplifies what we were trying to do with that program.</p><p>Then Ellen said this:</p><p>&#8220;The Wyoming Valley is comically known for a bar and a church on every corner and ethnic food (meaning homemade pierogis). Many once described it as a wonderful place to raise a family, but a stigma now sits on the very streets that raised me. People say how the crime and corruption have taken over like it&#8217;s a scene out of Batman, but honestly we just need to see the beauty in this little town.&#8221;</p><p>Ellen has many opinions/observations and had this to say about drinking responsibly:</p><p>&#8220;Some nights I come home, take out my contacts and wash my face, put my clothes away and charge my phone. Other nights, I wake up in the bathtub with half a Hot Pocket still in my mouth. But the ultimate slap in the face is when your friends want to go get breakfast in the morning and all the details (or how you remember them) are hashed out over your bacon, egg and cheese. You choke down each bite every time someone brings up last night because the memories start fighting through the foggy alcohol memories.&#8221;</p><p>There is much more to Ellen. You can read about it on her blog.</p><p>Ellen and about 300 others belong to NEPA Influencers &#8212; a group trying to have a positive effect on NEPA. From what Ellen told me, this group intends to do all it can, through its members, to improve the quality of life in our region.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re local people looking to build up our community,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Ellen sees the beauty of what many living here hardly notice.</p><p>She&#8217;s telling us what we subconsciously already know, but haven&#8217;t appreciated for far too long.</p><p>Go Ellen!</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Columnshot-1-18.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082215InFocusEleenSiracuse1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Ellen Siracuse, 26, loves living in Northeastern Pennsylvania. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082215InFocusEleenSiracuse1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Ellen Siracuse, 26, loves living in Northeastern Pennsylvania. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

In Focus: Young blogger finding the beauty in ‘this little town’