I grew up in a very small community with one stop light, two pizza shops, and one building for Pre-kindergarten through 12th grade... Before I continue, I want all my readers to know that my hometown will ALWAYS be home to me, but I have outgrown the boundaries which it makes me feel are present.

Remember when your high school teachers would tell you once you graduate you're thrown into the real world? Yea it's true, but not just in education; the whole world is so different. In the past two years I have been home six months total and each time I come back I see just how different the real world is. I have learned so much in those two years it seems like a lifetime of knowledge has been thrown at me. Escaping the familiarity of my hometown was the greatest thing I've ever done, and there were so many lessons I learned...hopefully I can remember them all.

When you leave your hometown... the world opens up. It's almost like anything in the whole world is right at your fingertips. Your dreams don't feel nearly that far away. Being from a small town it felt like the only options we had were to work at the school or the hospital in the next town over. Growing up everyone told you to shoot for the moon but it never seemed possible until you look beyond what was familiar.

When you leave your hometown... people actually ARE different. There are people of other ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and genders. I pity the people who never get the chance to meet someone different than themselves in these ways. Getting to meet people who were completely different than me was something I wasn't expecting. My best friend was gay when I lived at home but he was one of the few, and people just weren't as accepting as they are elsewhere. Transgender, bisexual, cisgender, Buddhists, and everything else under the sun are out there if you're open to exploring ideas. Opening your mind and heart just might be the greatest thing you'll do after leaving.

When you leave your hometown... you learn people don't usually care what you're doing, what you're wearing, or who you lay down with at night. If it's not affecting their lives, people generally don't care what you're doing with your time. Of course, every area of the world is going to have those people who don't want you to be happy but there are so much more people out there who will support you.

When you leave your hometown... you fall in love. Whether it's the boy that lives down the hill, the park you and your friends go to just to get away, or the crepes that you go all the way to the mall just to get. You'll fall in love with something, or a lot of things. There will be things that make saying goodbye so hard, even it is just for summer vacation. They'll be different things that will draw you back every year to the same place, even if it is the middle of a snowstorm but you really wanna get away from your room. They'll be something that makes your heart beat a little faster and smile a little bigger.

When you leave your hometown... you'll miss it. This doesn't mean you're failing at being on your own, it means your human. Just like you fell in love with things in your new home, there will still be things that draw you back to that one stop light town. Maybe it's the nasty pizza that you only talk your mom into getting because they have the best blue cheese in town, or it's the friendly "hellos" you get from people you don't even remember but some how they remember you when you were three. People won't know you in your new town; it's a chance to restart, but it's always nice to have a place to go where you don't have to introduce yourself.