I’ve lived in Bowling Green over a month now, and my iPhone map now remembers my dorm address as “home” replacing my childhood address as a “significant location.” I’ll have to admit I shed a tear thinking that a place I’ve spent the last eighteen years of my life is just a significant location on the journey I have left in life. It has some truth to it too, meaning my hometown is a significant location for me, I consider myself lucky to have grown up there.

It’s where my family is, the people that mean the most to me. It’s where met my best friends, the people I’m so lucky to have to lean on. We talk almost every day and love coming home for long-awaited reunions. The people of my hometown have shown me what hometown pride truly is, from cheering on the high school teams on Friday night to coming together in times of need.

The places in my town hold a place in my heart with the people in it. It’s the setting of my life for eighteen years and I would never change that. It’s the pizza place we went to after every Friday night game. It’s the riverfront we spent hours hanging out at, especially over the summer. It’s the movie theater I had my first kiss at. Growing up I would complain about my town saying, “there is nothing to do” or “this town is so boring,” but it wasn’t until I left I realized that without this little, southern Indiana town my life would be completely different.

Sometimes I question why I ever left it. Life there seems much easier, more relaxed maybe. Everything is comfortable like walking at the river, going to the mall and passing at least one person you know driving down the highway. It’s where my whole family is, why did I leave them? Why did I leave my friends, my home?

This was my feeling the first couple days in Bowling Green. I felt unsure of my decision and homesick, which is something I had never really felt. It wasn’t until I went home on fall break I realized I’m exactly where I need to be. I was so excited to go home and see my friends and family, and I loved every minute I spent with them.

The first day of my break my friends weren’t home yet, and I realized my town wasn’t as fun without them with me in it. We spent the next two days catching up and reminiscing on what it was like just a year ago, feeling like it was ten years ago and feeling older than ever sitting at our high school football game with the fans and not the student section.

I realized on that drive back to Bowling Green that my town wasn’t great all on its own, it was great because I had people around me that made it amazing. And as much as I love that little, southern Indiana town, it will now take the title hometown, and Bowling Green is now home, just like my iPhone map says.