When I was a senior in high school, I was more than ready to get out of my hometown because I was ready for a change. I watched my brother take off on a new journey in college, leaving me behind in our small, rural Iowa town.
I found myself expressing how much I disliked the place I spent most of my life because I let the bad experiences outweigh the good.
Not until my sophomore year of college did I realize how truly special my hometown is to me. Without even realizing it, my hometown taught me so many things, and there will always be a special place in my heart for it.
If you are finding yourself distancing from your hometown and the people in it, think back on all the good times and forget about the bad, and you will realize how truly important home is.
As a child and for the longest time, you thought the world of your hometown. There was no place you would rather be. Your very best friends and family surrounded you, and you just couldn’t imagine yourself anywhere else. Then you entered middle school and high school, and things started to change. School became harder, girls and boys were meaner, and you just didn’t feel like you fit in with anyone.
Out of the blue, you start to feel this anger deepening towards your hometown. Instead of blaming yourself, you place the blame on your hometown for your not being able to escape and start fresh because you had to finish your last few years of high school. You wished away senior year and that following summer, and move-in day couldn’t come soon enough.
Freshman year of college was everything you hoped for and more. New friends, experiences and finally being able to truly figure yourself out were exciting, and you never wanted it to end, and the thought of home didn’t cross your mind much at all. Sadly, freshman year had to come to an end at some point, and it was just as terrible as you thought it would be to leave all of your best friends you made at college for three months.
You return for sophomore year and are as stoked as ever to start another awesome year with your favorite people. However, you find yourself thinking about home a little more than you did freshman year. Sure, there are still new experiences to take part in, but this is when you really start to realize that there are things about home that cannot be replaced.
When you pull into the outskirts of town and the first car you pass waves at you even though you have no idea who they are, you know you’re home.
When you walk into the grocery store because Mom asked you to pick up some meat and chips for a neighborhood grill out, you know you’re home.
While you’re in line waiting to check out and your high school English teacher asks you how school is going and tells you how successful you’re going to be, you know you’re home.
The sense of community you feel at school is great, but it doesn’t compare to walking down the street at home and having a genuine conversation with that lady from church whose name you can never remember but she is so excited to see you. She knows how old you are, what college you attend and what your major is because you are the topic of discussion when she sees your parents in church.
As you drive down the road on that familiar street that you always walked with friends late at night, you can’t help but remember all the good times and memories this small, sketchy town brought to your life. Although there were bad times, after going through a year of college and its struggles, you now start to realize that the bad times could never outweigh all of the good times your boring hometown provided.
You were such a big part of that community, whether you realize that now or in 20 years when you bring your own kids through town to show them the school you attended and the playgrounds you climbed on when you were their age. The people making up that community genuinely care about your life and all of the things you’re doing and impacts you’re making away from home.
So, even though you think you’re just another alum of another high school and that your hometown couldn’t care less what you’re doing now, think again. The next time you visit home, go visit your neighbor in the nursing home and make her day. Call your high school English teacher to meet up for a quick lunch or maybe just show up on their doorstep if that’s the type of relationship you have with them. Let the people that were so important to you a few years ago know that they still mean the world to you, and that college has not changed that a bit because they are the ones who have had the largest impact on you over the years.
