Chicago has everything: great food, incredible sports teams, and the ability to make anyone walking through downtown feel like this is the greatest city in the world. Having moved to the Northern suburbs of this city when I was 8/9 years-old, I have spent the majority of my life loving the opportunity to take the train down and embrace everything Chicago has to offer.

Unfortunately, for me, Chicago doesn’t just have all the wonderful things listed above. As someone who attended New Trier High School, one of the largest public high schools in the country, Chicago becomes a hub for all recently graduated college students to come back and begin their post-grad lives and careers.

I have brought this up to my parent’s countless times, the majority of which occur when they are asking me whether I want to move back to Chicago. I answer by saying that yes, Chicago is a wonderful city and I would love to live here, but I also want to be able to explore and meet new people.

As a city with a population of almost 3 million people, I always get the same response. My feelings are somewhat ridiculous, as the chances of me feeling like I am back in high school surrounded by the same types of people are slim. In a city of 3 million, it would be surprising to feel trapped.

Yet, although I know this and believe it to be true for the most part, there is still a part of me that feels there are limitations to moving back to a city where most of the people you went to high school with are planning to live.

You don’t want to feel like you are trapped, and you want to be somewhere that allows the person you are to thrive.

The truth is, we all change in college. Some for better, others for worse, and when we graduate and move to whatever town or city we choose, we want to feel like we are able to be the person we are without feeling like we still have to care about who someone took to their senior prom in high school.

Throughout the past several years, I have gone back and forth between trying to come up with the answer to the question of do I really want to move back to Chicago. Here’s what I have decided:

I love Chicago, and I think it is the perfect place to start a career. With both my family and boyfriend in the area, I couldn’t think of a better environment for support at the start of my career. Moreover, I couldn’t think of a better environment that would make me happy and feel secure.

Are there times when it’s frustrating to feel like everyone has the same idea as you? Yes. Are there parts of me that feels like, even in a city of 3 million people, Chicago is MY city? I’m not ashamed to admit, yes. But at the end of the day, I love Chicago because of the opportunities it has to offer, and the beauty of it is this: I don’t have to stay here forever.

For all those people who may be fellow Chicago dwellers, or call the cities of New York, L.A., Boston, or San Francisco home, don’t fret. At first, you may be frustrated that it feels like everyone wants to call the city that you feel is your city, home (even those that have lived there longer than you have.) Just keep in mind the cheesy thought that home is wherever you make a home for yourself, and that city–no matter where it is–won’t be your home forever.