For the college graduates of Fall 2016 or Spring 2017 the senioritis and graduation anxiety has set in. We all want to know where we are going after we toss that cap but some of us just don't. It is not a bad thing. We still have some time...I think.
There are so many options out there, but where do you begin? It helps if you're one of those students who have had five different internships before it is time to graduate, but senioritis is a real thing, even for college students. It helps to pick out where you want to live right out of college, and therein lies my dilemma.
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Lately I have been tossing around the idea of starting where it all began.
My physics teacher in high school used to talk about distance and displacement. There is a such thing as having zero displacement and it is the idea of moving around but ending in the same place you began. He morbidly related it to dying in the same room in the same hospital that you were born in.
When I think about moving back to my hometown I fear that my displacement will be zero.
It is a personal choice I suppose. I loved my hometown and most kids who grew up there hated it. They said it was boring. I think I might be happy there, but here is the problem.
There is a stigma in our culture when it comes to moving back to your hometown. Either people think like my high school physics teacher or every kid who grew up there is just programmed to hate it except for me.
Here are some reasons that moving back to your hometown after graduation is not such a bad thing.
1. You have family there.
It might just be your immediate family, or your whole clan might live there. What counts is that you have people there; people that you can have Sunday dinners with when you have had a rough week at your new job. It helps to have people that you know are in your corner. You know that you are only a short drive away from a comforting hug.
2. The area is familiar.
You will not have to struggle to find that cool coffee shop that you will frequent because it is the same one you went to when you were growing up. Yeah, you might be the newbie getting the whole office coffee now, but at least it is at a place that you know and love.
3. You have a network built there.
In most lines of work, it's all about who you know rather than what you know. In the city you grew up in, you have as many as 10-15 years worth of connections built up from your childhood. Whether it's old neighbors, classmates or teammates, many of them have stuck around and work in the area. These are the people that have your back for old times sake and can hook you up with that first job you've so desperately been searching for.
For those of you that are adventure bound, all the more power to you. In the end, there is nothing wrong with moving back to your hometown. Unless, of course, you are still there on your parent's couch by age 40. Don't do that.
