My friend and I have been emailing back and forth lately and we had a conversation about how the city he moved back to isn’t the way he remembered it. It now all seems so hedonistic to him and he’s no longer entranced by all the sex and drugs. This was my reply:
I think it's a good thing that those sorts of pursuits don't draw you in the way they used to. It implies a change and a sense of maturity. As for not belonging there anymore, I know what you mean. I don't belong here anymore. Though it's a line as old as dirt and about as useful a cliche: there's no going home again. One of my favorite writers, Bill Bryson, said it best: "There are things you just can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he's ready to see you, and you can't go home again." Places are never the same again after you move away. You leave a little piece of yourself behind there, only to return years later and realize that that piece of the person you were is only a faint shadow of who you are now, if not totally unrecognizable.
Just some food for thought.
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