Leaving your hometown for the first time when you go to college is a very new experience. There are many different emotions ranging from excitement to nothing but nerves. Whether or not you were ready to leave, going somewhere new for the first time on your own is strange. Personally, I was really excited to start college and be on my own. It’s not until you are actually on your own that it hits you. Now being in my second year of college, it’s given me some time to think back to the place that I grew up and the people that I grew up with.
The thing about it now, is that it’s still your home but not really. Yes, you go back for breaks and stay in the room you lived in for the first 18 years of your life, but now things are different. Not only are you different but so is your actual hometown. It’s easy to forget where you came from when you’re away and swept up in your college town. Being away for months on end makes you have this new appreciation for where you grew up.
I know that without some of the places and things that I did, I wouldn’t be the same person I am today. I grew up in the stereotypical Texas town that lived for Friday Night Lights. I wouldn’t change that for one second. Nights like those brought so much joy and so many good memories connected to my hometown. Looking back, I took advantage of those nights until I was a senior in high school and started realizing that performing under the lights wouldn’t happen a lot anymore and being able to walk around and see all the people that I grew up with for most of my life. The idea of being separated really hadn’t set in.
Being able to go home and see the Sonic or Chicken Express that my friends and I would spend hours at have more of a meaning now that didn’t really exist while living there. Whenever I do go home and go to those places, seeing a group of friends laughing and talking about the things that happened to them the hour they weren’t together makes me smile. It reminds me of those time I spent with my friends because now it’s a matter or catching up in an hour or two on the past couple of months that we weren’t together.
A hometown is so much more than just a place. It holds a special place in the hearts of those that lived there and always will. I don’t know if I’ll live there again with my family but I do know that it will always be a part of who I am and will always make me smile every time that I drive through it after being away for so long.
