I never realized how much my hometown meant to me until I actually moved away from it, getting a feel for the actual world ahead of me and seeing what else is out there besides what I saw every day for 19 years. I always thought about leaving my hometown and getting away from everything so many times because at some point I thought that I could survive on my own and away from home for a long period of time. But I think that once I did move away, I started to miss everything about my hometown and everyone in it. Leaving the small town of Fort Thomas and moving to Louisville for school was a big jump for me, even though it’s only an hour and a half away, it feels like a lifetime.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Louisville. There are so many amazing things in this city that I never knew back home and I have learned so much about myself that I never thought I would. Now maybe that’s just me growing up and “finding myself” as some would say, but it’s still true. I have only been here for 2 years now and there is still so much that I have yet see, and that excites me. My small city doesn’t have as many of the things that Louisville can offer but where Fort Thomas sits in Northern Kentucky, I’m right across the river from the heart and soul of Ohio, Cincinnati.

Cincinnati is the reason why I do miss my hometown, not because it’s a big city but because it has so many things to offer to people who live nearby. In the summertime you have many concerts in the park right on the river, Reds games with your friends, the diverse culture, and the most amazing food you can find for oh so good prices. In the fall and winter time you have the Bengals games that are insane (even when they’re not winning), the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo that you can never miss out on, the Christmas plays at the Taft theatre that you fall in love with every time you go, and you have ice skating in the middle of downtown with the beautiful Christmas tree that everyone loves. Even though Cincinnati isn’t my hometown exactly, I still tell people it is because that’s what they know around the area. But my small town of Fort Thomas, with a population of about 16,000, has so many great things to offer as well. From the towns annual festivals in the summertime, to the towns Friday night football games and the delicious food that feels like you had it in your own home is all the more reason to love this town.

Things change in everyone’s lives, and we do have to accept that it’s happening. But that doesn’t mean that we forget where we came from. I miss my hometown more and more each day, but then I look at what’s around me and see where I have come from and how it has shaped me to be in the place I am today. So my small little town may not look like a lot but it prepared me more than I thought it would for the big city of Louisville, but I still think that Cincinnati will forever be in my heart as my favorite city I could ever live in.