Before I left for college, I swore to myself that I was happy to leave my hometown and never come back. If you talk to anyone from a small town or you live in one, then you might’ve heard this once or twice. People are saying everything from “I hate it here!” “Get me out of here!" Or even the typical “This town sucks, it’s so boring.” We all had our fair share of hatred for the place we live. Understandable. Most of us have been there our whole lives. In my case, my hometown was the only home I ever had. And at the end of my high school career, I was ready to leave.

But I lied to myself.

I came back home many, many times.

I catch myself missing my hometown on a random Tuesday night while I’m stuck in my dorm room.

Whether it’s my mom's homemade cooking or my friends being a 5-10 minute drive away, there is always something I randomly start missing.

You will miss the deli right down the road where you always order your breakfast sandwich or the Dunkin Donuts where you order your coffee when it’s too early in the morning to see clearly. You will miss late night diner trips with your friends or your favorite ice cream place. After living in one place for so long, you forget how wonderful the small things in your hometown actually are.

It’s true that after a while, you get sick and tired of a place. You want to leave, be independent and make your own decisions. I get it, I've been there. But trust me, once time passes, you will miss it.

You can complain all you want about your hometown. Sure, it may be small, seeing 5 or more people you know when you walk into the town grocery store may be annoying, or Friday nights when there’s nothing to do is the absolute worst. But you will always come back, your whole life was formed in this small, beautiful (sometimes boring) town. Deep down, you will start to miss it once you've been gone for awhile.

No matter how many times you said you hated this place or can't wait to leave it, you will always keep coming back home.