Your hometown will always hold a special place in your heart, but sometimes you need to get away and it doesn't want you to leave. Your hometown wants to keep you all to itself, but you have to cut the cord to pursue your dreams. When your journey is over, you return to your hometown, but it feels different.
For me, Lancaster, Pennsylvania is a great place to call home. My family and friends are nearby, the nostalgia of driving the back roads of Lancaster is comforting, and the hiking trails are beautiful.
At first, I thought it was just me. I thought i was the only one who became unmotivated and less productive after returning to Lancaster. It's been a month since I've come home from graduating college, and I still haven't unpacked my bags. I'm more likely to snuggle under the covers and watch Netflix than go to the gym. But then I realized some of my friends and co-workers felt the same way, and I began exploring and developing the theory of the Hometown Slump.
I would describe the Hometown Slump as being in an unmotivated, less productive state of being compared to the life you maintained away from home. My case of the Hometown Slump has occurred since I moved home after graduating college. It seems easier to get stuck in a rut when I come back to Lancaster.
One reason for this could be that we associate our hometown with a more relaxed and laid-back lifestyle that was familiar to us for the 18 or so years we grew up there. Another explanation is the atmosphere of a hometown may be more stagnant compared to the hectic lifestyle you live at college or while you're away from home. While I was at college, my schoolwork kept me motivated and I was more focused on taking the right steps towards achieving my goals. My class schedule allowed me to fall into a healthy, productive, daily routine, which is much harder to have when I work long, demanding hours as a banquet server until I figure out my next step.
Despite my feelings about the Hometown Slump, it should not be an excuse to remain in a stagnant, unambitious state. The Hometown Slump isn't crippling, but it is comparable to a nagging, heavy feeling that delays your pursuit to achieve your dreams.
However, a lot of my friends who experience the Hometown Slump are on extremely successful career paths. Therefore, the Hometown Slump is manageable; you just need to stay focused on your long term goals and do what makes you happy.
