For the past eight or so years, at every opportunity given, my mother has said something of along the lines of "get out of here because I never did." The thought of me going to college and wanting to move back to my four stoplight town confused her beyond belief. Up until a few months, I did want to go back but something changed.
Before everyone hates on me for not wanting to live in my hometown, let me explain. There's a population of 3,100 people. That's the first sign you see when you roll into town and it hasn't changed in over 15 years. A preacher once made a joke about moving there because "no one ever died and no one was ever born." I love my small town from midsummer games of kick the can at the park with my former classmates to going home in the fall for a Friday night lights refresher.
There is just so much more to see and to do. I want to go somewhere where I do not see someone I know every time I go into public. I want to have a town that has more than a dollar store and a McDonald's. I want to climb mountains and go on adventures. There are so many things I've yet to experience.I want to live in the woods and in a big city, not simultaneously, of course. I want to be able to kayak in a river and get Starbucks without having to drive an hour.
I don't want to live where everyone knows everything about me, sometimes before I even know, perks of a small town. I want to see unfamiliar faces and find beauty in new things. I want to live in a studio apartment without depending on my parents to support me, even though it comes in handy every once and a while.
Don't get me wrong, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for my hometown. I'll always cringe a little when I see it on a list of least desirable places to live but I'll also understand what the critic from a place nowhere near my home insults it. I just have a need to be somewhere else. Maybe in a different country, even.
After spending lots of time and money on a degree to better my future and help to provide for myself, I'll move away from my hometown. I'll live in a subdivision or in an apartment complex. As long as it's new and refreshing and I don't know a soul.
