Returning back to my hometown

It’s weird, like stepping back in time except the buildings are older and more run down and everyone has aged a lot. I’m always reminded why I left.

Every time I go back, I feel both suffocated and frustrated by how closed-minded and spiteful those busybodies have remained and relieved that I got out and had the opportunity to grow personally, professionally and to broaden my horizons.

However, due to general population turnover I don’t know very many people here anymore. I feel like an alien in a place I know like the back of my hand. It’s distinctly different from the anonymity of city life. Everyone knows everyone, but no one knows me. It’s very odd.

I have been home for longer periods of time than I have been in years. The city I currently live in is similar to my hometown so in some ways my life is similar. I’m actually really sad to see what’s happening to my hometown. 

You can go back to it, but it is never the same place. When you return there's some people you knew that have left and some people you don't know that have moved in. Various businesses have changed, economic drivers may be different. 

A bunch of developers have sold people on the idea that moving there is going to be some sort of low-cost living utopia. Some of my work is in affordable housing. My hometown is now almost always one of the cities on watch lists for unaffordable housing now. Developers are building new “luxury” units that most people can’t afford and convincing people from big cities to move there for cheap houses. 

I’m sad to see so many pockets of what made it a kind of sluggish midsized city disappearing so a small number of people can make some money.