You come home from your first year of college excited to be greeted by your hometown and the familiarity of knowing every face that passes you on the sidewalk. You’re ready for the late night talks with your high school friends and the guarantee of home-cooked meals. The same tedious summer job at your favorite coffee shop you've had for the last four years all of a sudden sounds exciting because you’re ready to be comforted by the feeling of home. Then as your full van arrives in your driveway and you begin the process of trying to fit back into your old life, you realize it doesn't feel very comfortable anymore.

Sound familiar?

I think that it is a story that far too many people relate to. This idea that your hometown is the place you are always supposed to feel the most at home is a narrative that doesn’t hold that much truth. Unfortunately, things change, and people change, and sometimes you come back to a place that used to fit like a glove and realize you’re forcing the fit. It took me a really long time to understand that being able to grow means that you have to let go. Sometimes that means that you don’t talk to your childhood best friend anymore. It's not anyone's fault that you grew apart while you were busy growing up.

Sometimes you have to comprehend the idea that your hometown is better when you only visit it for the holidays. These truths are not something that are made to make you feel bitter or sad. Sometimes changing and growing means you find new places and faces that feel like home. I have found some of my best friends in different states, on different continents, in places I never would have ventured to if I had let the idea of staying in a place that I didn’t love anymore keep me from moving on. You have no loyalty to stay somewhere when you’d rather leave.

There are lessons that you will never learn if you don’t prioritize the importance of living in different places, surrounded by new people and different cultures.

As the beginning of the school year begins and a mass population of people begin the adventure of starting fresh, I hope that they keep in mind that there is an entire world at their fingertips waiting for them to discover it. Don’t hold back from new experiences because you feel like you owe your old ones any time or space. Your life will change; your ideas of what make you happy will change. Do not be afraid to embrace all the different experiences that come along with growing up. You'll never figure out what you want if you let other people tell you what they think you need.