Curious to hear from people who’ve stayed in or near their hometown all their lives. Do you feel content where you are, or do you ever wish you had moved away at some point?
Do you travel, and if so—are you ever tempted to relocate when you experience other places? What keeps you rooted where you are—family, familiarity, cost of living, community, something else?
Also, how do you feel about the people who did leave? Do you get it, or does it feel overrated?
Not trying to judge either path—just genuinely interested in the different reasons people stay or go, and how it all plays out over time. Would love to hear your story.
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I left my hometown and definitely do not regret it. It was a town on the smallish side so u couldn’t avoid running into people from high school and from youth. For me that was not great because I had grown up neglected/abused and I made a lot of social errors in my youth as a result. Which lead to people having opinions about u that are not flattering. So for me, it was necessary to move and start over somewhere else where nobody knows me and I have more anonymity. Not just this but I felt retraumatized by being reminded of my experiences in that town.
Is my hometown where I was born or where I grew up? I was born in NYC and moved to Jacksonville, FL, when I was 10. I moved back to NYC when I was 27. I definitely have no regrets about coming back to NYC. I would have had nothing but regrets had I stayed in Jacksonville. I was there 2 weeks ago and I couldn’t wait to leave.
I stayed. Now that I’m married, house, 3 kids, I really couldn’t picture moving away from family and friends. It’s almost summer again, so we can bring our kids to their grandparents on the weekend for swimming, backyard BBQ, etc. We have friends that we can just hang with casually in the garage. For me it’s about the people, having a good network is very difficult to make as an adult and I think loneliness is one of the absolute worst things for people as they get older.
That said I do wish I moved away for like 5-8 years in my 20s. It would have been nice to branch out a little more and meet more ambitious people. The friends I have that moved away for some time always seem a little more well adjusted.
Once enough older family members pass away, I’ll probably go wandering and possibly just disappear. Don’t wanna leave a big mess for my siblings to clean up or be the weird uncle when they get married and have kids. Otherwise I usually stay in my hometown long enough to hate it and want out like I did as a teenager and then go live someplace else long enough to hate it and come back. Legal and cheap weed is a major QoL improvement since those teen years though. I guess I’m just getting old and travel is a pain in the ass and I don’t have anymore delusions about really starting a new life somewhere else. Im happy for the people who did get out of here, especially considering how at least once a year someone I grew up with dies from drugs or self-deletion.
I moved away from what I consider my hometown when I was 12. Lived in a couple of different places then back to my hometown after college when I was about 22. I really wanted to move away again for years but the longer I’m here the more I love it. Likely as I get older, I will look for somewhere warmer for winters but I truly love where I live. It just feels like home in a way the other places didn’t.
I travel frequently and absolutely love seeing other places/cultures but my home base is my home base. I would move to Denver though – I freaking LOVE Denver.