I’m told, that for those of us that left our hometown as soon as we could, it’s perfectly normal to look back on that place whilst wearing rose-tinted glasses with a sense of nostalgia. Even though you’ve created a thriving new life for yourself somewhere new and you’re very happy there, some people just can’t shake the draw of home. Even if it’s nothing like it was when you left it. Here are a few things to bear in mind if you’re considering selling up and making the trip back home.
Are you Longing for Time Gone by?
One thing you really do need to be sure of before you make any hasty decisions, is whether that draw of home you feel is because of the place or a moment in time that has now passed. Are you longing for your old stomping ground because it’s where your brain is telling you life was good? Or is it genuinely somewhere that you miss?
I know that, the place where we were just starting out (having now been married for almost a decade) will always have a special place in our hearts, especially as it’s where most memories of our son being small were made. Can you tell our fiercely independent only child is fast heading for his 9th birthday? Ha! We’ve had to have very real conversations about whether we were really yearning for the town that we left (for very valid reasons) or if it was those baby and toddler years that were now long gone *sob*.
The Cost of Living
One potential key difference is definitely the cost of living.
If you’re considering relocating, it’s essential to do a total cost of living analysis, which includes transportation, insurance, taxes, utility costs, moving & legal costs and even the cost of groceries. Any or all can vary greatly from what you pay today.
Nostalgia, it’s Like Comfort Food
We’re far from the only ones dreaming about going back to their hometowns. People fondly contemplate the possibility for a myriad of reasons. Nostalgia is the biggest reason. It’s like a comfort food. For people who left when they’re young, it may be a strong draw to recapture something. Before uprooting yourself and heading back, though, you need to be certain the move would make good financial sense. Remember that the town won’t be the same, so it should be viewed as a completely new place.
It Won’t be How you Remember it
As humans, we have this knack of assuming that if we’re not engaging or playing with something, it stays the same. You and I both know that it does not. That cute little pond where you used to feed the ducks? Filled in two years ago. That nice bit of town you always dreamed of living in? People don’t walk through there at night anymore. And so and so on, and it’s the same for all places, because they don’t exist in a vacuum. They’ll be positives and negatives but it will not be the same, so even though you’ve gone home, it might not necessarily even feel like it.
If you’ve genuinely thought deeply about all of these issues, and you’re sure that it’s for the best reasons you want to move back, then it’s time to get serious about it. Start with research, if you can, go back and spend a few weekends there. Whilst you’re there, you can check out the neighbourhoods and see if they’re anything like they were. If you’d no longer be able to commute to work from your hometown, then it’s time to start job hunting. It’s very important that you have your job prospects covered, before you look for your dream house. You’re next job will be schools, it’s time to start reading through Ofsted reports and performing visits at all of the likely contenders. Underneath all of this, it’s very important that each member of the family feels as though they have gained something from the move.
Leave a Reply