It's interesting to be back living in the town I grew up in. There are ghosts, to be sure, with so many familiar faces gone or older than how I remember them. (Which reminds me that I must look older, too. Me? Really?)
When I was contemplating moving back last summer, someone said "Don't do it! It's never what you remember!"and that's true. Life felt very different, was different, as a kid, then as a teenager and finally as a student in my 20s. The women that do still live here that I knew previously are married with kids, and some are more open than others to opening up their routine of 'couples with kids' to include single with no kids. That's been an interesting observation to make - not always an easy one - but an eye opener. And those differences - the lack of those reference points for so many women my age - lead me to remember how important it is to not value yourself vis-a-vis your relationship to others. It really does, like it or not, come back to the relationship we forge with ourselves. I think that's the challenge, but the beauty of it, too. That said, I came back with few expectations, just with an instinct that told me that this is what I needed and wanted to do. I don't know if it's forever, but it is the right place for me, for now, and it would be nice to stay awhile.
One more observation: the days here leading up to Christmas are nowhere near as harried as they used to be (and that's not just because I am no longer behind the counter of the local camera shop - this is back when people were buying and developing rolls of film for the holidays. Read pandemonium!). "The Village" (as we call the main street) is hopping a bit more than usual, but calling it a holidays rush would be a stretch. Still, such a pretty, pretty town!
