I spent 17 years of my life in the same house on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. For my entire existence I played in the same neighborhood, saw movies at the same theater and biked at the same park. Then one day I packed my bags and flew all the way to Los Angeles, the first big move of my life. Since that day, people have been asking me if I want to move back to Indiana after college or when I get a job, and my answer has always been: "No."

"Yeah, I'd never leave Southern California for Indiana. I mean, the weather there is just amazing."

I guess, but I don't really care about the weather too much.

"Oh, I bet it's because there are so many jobs there, right?"

Well, there are jobs in lots of places, so try again.

"So why won't you go back home? You do like it there, right?"

I do. I love it there. And that's precisely why I don't want to go back.

I love Indianapolis as the city where I grew up. It was my childhood and is the reason why I will always be a Hoosier at heart. But leaving my hometown has allowed me to look back on it with rose-colored glasses. By physically stepping away from where I grew up, I can see clearly the experiences that helped shape me into the person I am today, and I'm allowed to conveniently forget all the memories that weren't so great.

Moving away has made me love Indianapolis even more and given my hometown a sense of magic and comfort that it didn't have when I lived there for 17 years. I see too many of my friends who are still there no longer appreciate the little nooks and crannies of the city where they grew up, or the odd quirks of the people who live there. Years of being in the same spot has made them disillusioned to the world around them.

Maybe that's also why I love thinking about the next place I'm going to live. So far, my life is divisible into two categories: Indiana and California. And just like moving away from Indy has made me appreciate the Hoosier State even more, moving away from California will allow me to reflect on the good times I had in Los Angeles. I'll always be able to look back on Southern California as the place where I made some of the best friends, ate some of the best food, and created some of the best memories.

But even now, after less than three years, I can already feel myself start to become disenchanted with the city. And I don't want that. I've talked to tons of born-and-bred Angelenos who are so tired of the city that they wish they could move somewhere quieter, and I've met just as many native Hoosiers who are so tired of the Midwest that they want to move to the West Coast. And maybe that's a good thing, because it'll give them a chance to finally appreciate the place where they grew up.