Before you jump to conclusions, no, this does not apply to all of you.

But here's the deal: I associate you, my hometown friends, with the hometown that I would rather forget. Now that I don't consider it home and have had time to reach beyond its confines, I've had time to reach beyond you, too.

Getting away from you allowed me to grow.

There is more to life than sporting your varsity jacket during a football game at the high school you graduated from over three years ago. There is more to life than dinner at the same three restaurants on Friday nights and spending your Saturdays walking in a pack around the mall.

There is more to life than your boyfriends and the petty drama that, for some reason, you still pour every ounce of your energy into, as if anyone cares what you think. (Spoiler alert: they don't!)

My point is that freeing myself from my hometown and everything it encompassed, which includes all of you, allowed me to finally realize that there is so much more to life.

There are one million things that we have yet to experience, people we have yet to meet, and places we have yet to go.

And we will never get there, friends, if you don't get out of our hometown.

Getting away from our hometown, and you, allowed me to live a life that I wish I could have been living from the very start. In my new home, in this new city, with my new friends, is exactly where I was always meant to be and I know it. I am happier here than I have ever been.

I wish that for you, too. I want you to escape someday and be happy.

Getting away from you allowed me to be free. It allowed me to become a new person. I became someone who was not timid or shy, but instead, someone who was not afraid to speak her mind on any and all things.

Since getting away from you, I am not the quiet one in the friend group. I am not the undateable one. I am not the overlooked one.

I am living my best life.

Friends, forgotten and kept, don't let that place hold you down.

Free yourself from the drama, grow up, boss up, and make the most of your lives.

You're better than that terrible town and you know it.

Getting away from you, and our hometown, was the best thing I have ever done.

You should try it.