Going away to college is something I would encourage everyone to do. You get to move to a new city and meet completely new people and literally be anything you want to be. It’s like being on an adventure for four (or five) years straight. A lot of people go away to college to get away from their small hometowns and see the world. But what happens when you get to college and realize how much you love your hometown?
I grew up in a small town in North Carolina where the only thing you did on Friday night was go to your high school’s football game and then go eat dinner at the Mexican restaurant that’s downtown. The first date I went on with the man I’m going to marry was to the football game against our rival high school. It’s almost like living in Friday Night Lights but without Tim Riggins to keep in interesting. The rivalries never die and you’re always going to be for your school even if you never admit it. Most of us grew up on a farm or beside one and saying everyone knows everyone is an understatement. We had “redneck row” in the parking lot where all of the boys and ocassional girls, parked their lifted and leveled pick up trucks. We even had tractor day, y’all, which is literally a day people brought their tractors instead of their cars. I loved every single minute of it, but I didn’t realize that until long after it was over and I had moved on up the mountain.
It’s one of those towns that people either love or hate and Lord knows I love it. A lot of people I went to high school with ended up at the same school as me and not a day goes by that I don’t come across one of them talking about how awful it is.
We all grew up a little differently depending on if you were raised in the county or in the city so that probably has a lot to do with it. I spend a solid amount of time going home on the weekends and naturally my school friends all want to know why I don’t spend every weekend at a sweaty frat party and doing a Cookout run at 1 a.m., but home is home and it’s where you can get actual meals every night rather than fast food or Lean Quisene. (#Blessup)
Every time I go back I pass the field where I first picked up a softball, which turned into a 20-year love. I pass every member of my family’s house anytime I drive home, not to mention the houses my best friends still live in. Best of all I pass the school where I found the love of my life. I have had some of the most important moments of my life in that place. I spent the first 18 years of my life there and it made me who I am. To be fair, I spent about the first 15 waiting to get out of it, but who doesnt?
Loving your hometown doesn’t mean you peaked in high school, because if you know me, I obviously did not. Don’t get me wrong, you should absolutely take the chance and move away from home at least once in your life. It truly is an experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Part of growing up means changing and moving on but you shouldn’t forget where you came from. It’s almost like fighting a battle with yourself over if it’s okay to miss the place that made you, or should you be like the rest of your friends and never go back? That’s a question that only you can answer on your own in your own time.
You want to become someone that you are proud of, that makes that little town proud, but you dont want to forget about the place that made you who you are. That place has given me as much as it ever took from me and I am forever grateful for growing up in that little southern town.
Sweet Home Alabama said it best, “Since when did it have to be one or the other? You can have Roots and Wings.” So shout out to the places that gave us our roots and the ones that have given us our wings.