I spent most of my childhood reveling in the fact that my best friend lived three houses down from me and the fact that I got to ride my bike to school every day because it was just simply that close to my house. Fast-forward about ten years and my perspective on my small hometown is a little different -- I loathe the fact that I can’t go to the grocery store without running into someone from high school and I envy all my friends from college who run in and out of big name designer stores on their way to grab an acai bowl after SoulCycle. Regardless, I am always oddly excited to return home for breaks from college. My appreciation for the small town I treasured as a kid has slowly started to return. All it took was a little time away from it for me to realize just that.

1. Your hometown friends are most definitely your truest friends.

Of course, you’ll make some great friends in college -- the fact of the matter is, it's inevitable when you’re living with roommates and spending all your time with the same group of people. But no friendship is comparable to the ones you made back when you were in elementary school. In a small town, you go to school with these friends from K-12, know the ins and outs of their family and can recite every boy they’ve ever remotely liked in the past 19 years. Although your college friends come close, a relationship as solid as the ones formed with your hometown friends cannot be made in the short four years of college.

2. It’s so much easier to bond over movie nights and takeout.

Although I’m sure it’s really fun to bop from bar to bar all around a fun city with your best friends, you can’t actually connect with them unless you’re in a more intimate setting. Love Actually and chicken lo mein are the best makings for a true girls night. You can catch up in the comfort of your own home while indulging on delicious (yet kind of disgusting) food. There might not be a headlining concert to attend or a new club to try out, but there’s always Netflix and the local Chinese restaurant to make it a special night with your closest friends.

3. Seeing your old teachers and long lost friends is actually a blessing in disguise.

Sure, nobody wants to run into her ex-boyfriend or that girl from chemistry that turned you in for cheating on an exam. But it’s always great to see the people who, at one point in your life, meant a lot to you. Catching up with someone who you haven’t seen in a while can be fun! You get to hear about what they’ve been doing, and you even get to brag about all the great things you’ve done while you were gone. The memories will all come flooding back to you as soon as you touch base with these long lost friends. And let’s be real, who doesn’t like to tell an old friend about the 3.8 GPA you’ve been averaging or the super cute guy you started dating?

4. You have many different families to rely on besides your own.

Your family is your rock and you would take a bullet for any one of them. But it’s definitely reassuring to know that you have many other people in your corner too. It may be annoying to realize that everyone in your town knows everything about everyone, to some extent. However, this can also work in your favor. If something happens in your family and you need an unbiased, outside view, you can choose from any one of these other families to confide in. Or let's say you simply get locked out of your house one night -- you will realize how nice it is to have other trustworthy people in your life (who happen to have a key to your house) at that precise moment.

5. Those hometown traditions are the ones you’ll remember the most when you’re gone.

Remember the Halloween parade that your town held every year? Or the summer parties with your entire neighborhood participated in? Those are the memories that will forever be near and dear to your heart. These small details were the things that shaped your childhood. Nothing made you happier than dressing up in fun costumes or seeing all your friends in one place -- with great food and popsicles, nonetheless. When you look back on these memories, you can only help but smile. 6. You can always rely on your family.

Even though you sometimes find yourself a little tired of the “hometown life,” you never really tire of your family. Sure, you have your friends and some fun activities you like to do in your town. But it’s sometimes nice to just relax with your siblings or watch movies with your parents. They are the first ones to cheer you up after a breakup and the last ones to leave your soccer game with you. No matter the situation (or how much of a jerk you are being), they will always be there for you. They are, after all, the ones who have kicked it in this small town with you for quite some time.

All in all, sometimes you do think you hate your small town. I’m guilty of it, and I’m sure my friends and family have felt the same at one point, too. But in the end, the small town you think you hate has also provided you with some great memories and everlasting friends. So… what really is there to hate about that?