TreeHouseView

Some people can’t wait to get out of their hometowns, some people never leave, and some people don’t lay claim to a hometown at all. A hometown to me is an anchor, and whether you look at that like something that stabilizes you and keeps you from drifting away and getting lost, or rather as something that weighs you down and prevents you from setting sail to your preferred destinatio. Any of those interpretations probably have some deep roots.

I couldn’t wait to leave home as an eighteen-year-old, but it had nothing to do with my hometown. I just wanted to be where my parents weren’t—where there were no rules, no oversight, no critical eye, no judgements. At that age I probably did think the further away the better, but I could have stayed close and gone to college locally, as long as I didn’t have to live at home. An hour and a half away at my dad’s alma mater was a compromise we could all live with, and over the next decade through college and after, I moved around and finally settled back in my hometown.

I think there are many people, probably more than anyone realizes, who don’t have anywhere to call home, or to call a hometown. So-called ‘military brats’ are one segment of the population who, when I’ve spoken with a few, don’t have one place they call their hometown. That always seem equal parts exotic and sad to me.

The American family is kind of built around the Hometown model, but there are many ways for a family to be successful. So who am I to presume that someone who doesn’t have one place to call their hometown is sad about it? The world might literally be their playground and that could be a bigger and better dream.

I love my hometown. It’s both big and small and whilte I’ve lived in and adventured to both smaller and bigger cities, I came back amd stayed because my roots are planted deep here, and I chose to nurture those and see what flourished from that. I’m currently at an age where I’m both enjoying and cringing while listening to my kids lament how boring their hometown is and how they have grand plans to get out of here. I hope they do fly free and see what the world has to offer, and if they choose to settle elsewhere. then I’ll have more places to visit and maybe grandkids one day whose hometowns are different from mine, and whose roots take hold in soil that’s made up of different elements.

But so far 0/4 have left. This hometown garden is blooming and the roots are strong!