Dear Hometown,
When I'm away, I try to keep up with everyone from home. It is important to me. I send you postcards and letters, I write about my adventures, and I ask you about yours. You usually respond with a text. And that is alright. I like to hear from you, no matter how you choose to respond. But I've been worried about you. I've heard that you got a job. You say you love it and I don't want to judge you, but you just don't seem happy. You work so hard and say how it will only be temporary. You're just waiting until something big happens. You're just waiting to win the lottery, for a record company to sign you, or to get a book deal. You want a miracle to happen tomorrow.
I don't want to discourage you, but you are just as I remember in high school. You had amazing, fantastical expectations for life. You actually had me believing you sometimes. We had such wild plans when we were so young, but we are not where we expected to be. You're not a zoologist, I'm not an actress, none of us are millionaires, and we're not living together in a big house in New York City. We are not where we expected to be, but that's okay. I'm happy where I am. You have not changed since I last saw you. It is the same as I remember from high school. Except I'm not there.
I've been busy. Now that I say it out loud, it sounds like a poor excuse coming from a bad friend. And that's how I feel sometimes. I know that I am not a terrible person just because I have things to do. When I'm away, I do things that are new and things that matter to me. I've met so many amazing people who introduced me to a different side of life. I've experienced an entire rainbow of emotions and feelings. A big part of my soul has grown from this experience.
It took me a long time to admit it but I am not the same person who left two years ago. I've changed. So when I come back home and see that it becomes harder and harder to reach you, apart of my heartaches. There is something lost that I will never get back. I never meant for you to become a part of my past But maybe that is for the better.
Maybe it is for the best that you and I grow into our own person. It is inevitable that people change, morph, and grow to become who they are meant to be. Even if that means old bits and pieces are lost along the way. I've changed, but you will always be important to the small person who left their hometown.
From,
An Out-of-State Student
