Have you ever just wanted to throw your stuff in a suitcase, zip that sucker up and run for the hills? Perhaps life has been looking particularly bleak for you lately. Perhaps the people you’ve surrounded yourself with aren’t as beneficial to your physical or mental health as you thought. Maybe people close to you changed. Maybe you changed. Either way, I’m sure at some point, each and every person has felt this way. They’ve had it, they’re getting the hell out of dodge, etc. Far be it from me to stop you from eloping with yourself, but here are a few alternative thoughts to help you when you want to run away.

Take a moment to examine the reasons why you want to leave everything behind. Are you sick of your town? If this is the case, try taking a weekend trip, or even a day trip, to ease your wanderlust. While it may seem like you’re one hundred percent “over it all,” there may be a few things you’d actually miss if you left. Take as much time as you possibly can for a small vacation, and see how you feel when you get back. Do this three times over a series of three months, and if you still can’t stand your location, maybe it’s time to start looking elsewhere.

Is it the people around you? This can often be difficult to admit, because this is as much your fault as it is theirs. If the people close to you didn’t turn out to be the way you’d thought they would be, or they/you have changed, have no fear. This sounds cliche, but make a list. On this write, write down each person’s name, what they bring to your life that is positive, and what they bring that is negative.

Take a look at the list when you’re done. While this is a factual, logical way to suss out whether or not someone is good for you, it’s not always that easy. Keep this list at home, close, and track your interactions with these people over a 1-2 month period. If the people around you are continuously bringing you down---it’s time to find new people, but maybe a move might actually help here. Sometimes you’re too emotionally entrenched and the only way out is to leave. This is understandable, but this may be more of a you issue and less of a them issue if it’s a consistent theme in your life.

You can’t run from your problems. If it’s an issue within yourself, your problems will find you, no matter where you turn and noo matter where you run. Sometimes, it’s a lot harder to take a deep look within ourselves and point out our weaknesses rather than packing up and never looking back. You can fool yourself into thinking you’ll become another person, given time and experience--but you won’t. In the end, people always come back to themselves. Sure, you may mature and you may tackle your issues head on in the future, but how can you possibly do that without practicing now?