No matter how much you try to escape your heart will always be there in your home town. I couldn't wait to run from mine and now it's my happy place.

This is much an ode as it is a beautiful and sometimes conflicted reminder of our roots, however painful and full of sorrow they may be, we still can find the beauty and the little things we can't easily detach from or forget. Remembering may come with the mourning, the disappointments as you mention, but also the moments of joy, the intimate ways you know and breathed and lived there... just everything.

Such a nostalgic gem, love that you shared specifics in this and it felt even more personal and something to be treasured. Especially because I think those are the things that stay with us the longest, when we have that wide range of emotions and even through all the ways it's broken us down, it still holds significance to us. <3