We all have a need to belong.
I’ve been back in my hometown now for almost a year and I’m not going to lie, when I first arrived here, I felt rather out of place. Pleased! Most definitely because everything was the same, basically
BUT
Everything was different. I am different. Living somewhere totally new and different for over 20 years will have that effect.
There are still things that I love now about where I grew up that I loved back then but there are new things that I want as well, naturally. I was a teenager when I left, now I’m in my 40s.
You are always in some kind of gap, a transitional period. I mention my 40s. Next year I turn 44, which is the first year of Mid-40s. You might be in your 20s, reading this, your 30s, 40s, 50s, even older.
First you notice where you are.
Then you acknowledge (a sound that you’ve heard what’s going on)
Finally, you admit what you want.
It’s a brave path to negotiate because in what you want, you admit there are new things you will have to do that you’ve been avoiding.
It’s not a hardship, it’s an adventure. If you choose to see it that way.