For all of our lives, most of us were fortunate to call some place our home. Whether it was a small isolated town in the middle of nowhere, or a large vibrant city filled with people, hometowns are a part of who we are. Even if we lived there all our lives or even just for a short period of time, it is the place that housed the many memories that capsulated our awkward middle school years and our pre-adulthood ventures.
After a while of living in the same town, we seem to attribute it to the past and we lust for new adventure and a new place to create memories. After going off to college and leaving it all behind, our first thoughts might be that we feel liberated from our 'boring old home town,' and that we are ready to leave this place behind and call somewhere else our new home.
However, I truly believe that being away from our hometown for awhile makes us appreciate it all that much more. We seem to stray away from the negative connotations we've previously given our hometown, and begin to see it in an entirely different light. We find ourselves oddly missing that annoying stray cat that wondered aimlessly around the yard, or the noisy neighbors who always infiltrated their way into our personal business, or even just the sense of warmth and belonging that we always took for granted.
College is the thin realm before entering the into the real world, where we can no longer make the rash decision of going out on a Tuesday evening, wear sweat pants and oversized t-shirts on a daily basis (or show up hungover for that matter), or ever use the phrase "Help me, I'm poor" on the parental units.
We find ourselves feeling old and washed up being back in our hometown as we see the little hoodlum kids roaming around Main Street or in groups at the movie theatre. We can not believe that we were once that small child at this same place. No, we couldn't have been. We were clearly much more mature than they are, right?
We also find ourselves realizing that every food place is closed by 10 pm. What kind of outrage is this? In college towns there are endless amounts of 24/7 late night munches to suffice any craving.
Casually cracking open a beer or drinking a daily glass of wine in your hometown will make our families question if we are an alcoholic. We seem to forget our true age after using our fake daily in college. Are we 22, 23, 19..? Who knows anymore.
More then often we find ourselves in bed by 11 on a Friday night and during high school we would be so so ashamed. Netflix party of 1 > than crashing a lame high school party that we once used to fein for so greatly.
We never realized how incredibly lucky we were to have a beach or a decent mall close by, until we are stuck in a college town, far away from all of that.
It's no secret that so much changes after entering college, daily activities, priorities, even us. These changes are gradual, and after being away for awhile we forget how things used to be so different. Our hometown is most likely the same place it has always been, but we appreciate and experience it in an entirely new way.
