Kelleys Island, Ohio greets me every year with the fresh smell of perch, and a vast green landscape littered with gravel roads. It’s how I imagine every town in America must have been before the Industrial Revolution, and it makes me proud that I’m able to visit an older America every year.

Kelleys Island is located on Lake Erie near the Canadian border, and is directly across from Cedar Point, a famous American amusement park. My mom’s family has held residency on the island for four generations, so we know just about everyone who lives there. Everyone is more neighborly on the island, meaning that people regularly go to each other’s houses for dinner, barbeques, and picnics. You don’t get that on the mainland much anymore, so it’s very special to me that those relationships still exist in some parts of the United States.

Kelleys Island is a breath of fresh air from our technology-filled lives. There is no Netflix or Facebook to bury our faces in, so what do we do for a week every July? We talk. This is one of the only times every year where all 35 members of my mom’s side of the family are together.  And during this week we push our everyday lives aside and enjoy each other’s company.

Kelleys Island by itself does not offer much, but when it is mixed with people who care for each other, there is nothing quite like it. Problems fade away with every hour at the beach, every bite at a grill out, and every laugh shared.

Kelleys Island is a quiet reminder that the simple things in life are still important, and that family will always be there. It is an American island that not many people know about, but it holds so many precious memories and experiences that I would not trade for anything. That’s something you can only get in the United States, which is why I’m proud to be an American.