Home - thoughts?

amh04

So.. since this was my first visit home since the PCS it brought up a question in my mind that I wanted to see how others think/feel about it.
Do you honestly miss being 'home'? Do you miss the place or just your family? If you could move back and be stationed there would you?

I thought I really really really missed home, I miss the food and knowing where I'm at and I miss my family - but I don't know if I would want to be living 10 minutes down the road from them anymore - since we now live like 800 milies away from them.

LetsHikeToday

We haven't PCS'd but I live 4 hours from my family.I'd move back in a heartbeat. When we PCS , I'll never move back here.

KendallR10

We aren't stationed any where. I do miss "home." I miss my friends and knowing where I am at. I only live 30 mins from my family. I miss the place. Its where I spent my whole life. I have a memory for just about every street

SamiJoeB

I Love being home, but it's alot different now that i'm older & married, than like it was in HS.  Besides.. it looks like I'll be here for a while...  I didn't think I missed being home and my family while I was gone, but when it was time for me to go back to WA, I lost it.. thus I decided to move home less than a week later.

Beachy730

I miss my family and friends and the food definitely.  However if I could move my family, friends and food to where we live, I would do it in a heartbeat.  Our hometown is just getting more and more depressed, and I honestly don't want to live there again.  H would be okay with moving at least half an hour away from there eventually, but not moving back there.  

It is funny though to realize how nothing ever changes at home.  When we just went home after 9 months (a year for H), nothing had changed at all and it felt like we never left.  That is nice, but at the same time you realize that you really aren't missing much.

ggirl2001

Ditto Beach. I miss all my family and friends but I am making a new life for myself as well. I miss my nieces and nephew the most, there are times I still get upset when I think about not seeing them since I am used to seeing them on a weekly basis.

However, my hometown has nothing to offer for H. For what he wants to do after military, there are no jobs for in my hometown. I can go back and get a job in a heartbeat probably, but I won't be happy. Even before I moved and was still living home, I wasn't happy. The weather is depressing, job situation can be depressing, and like Beach said not much has changed. It's the same people, at the same bars, doing the same thing. No thanks.

The only bad part is that I know that I won't my brothers as much as I would like, but thats part of moving away. I'm adjusting to that. On the flip side, I can see my sister and nieces in Fla way more often since I am that much closer to them.

Beachy730

Yeah I think the hardest part for me is missing my Godson and little cousins and my friends kids grow up.  But honestly between Skype and Facebook I talk to my family and friends so much that I really don't feel like I'm on the other side of the country.  

ggirl2001

Yeah, and picture messaging on the phones too. I get pictures all the time of my nieces and nephew in NY. I agree that you don't feel like missing out on much thanks to technology. I think sometimes I feel it when I just went to go out to dinner with one of my best friends and I can't. I have friends here, but they don't know my life and history etc. That will happen over time though.

I don't think I could even fathom the thought of moving back home. I have wanted to move away since I finished undergrad, but stayed for family issues, met H, then he joined Marines, so I postponed it again  until he got stationed and I could make plans. Prior to meeting him, I was planning to move to Fla to be closer to my sister. I am thankful for the fact that I was able to move, I am getting to experience so much more.

divinemsbee

I was "home" this weekend, and I think I miss my people more than I miss the actual place. I've moved around a lot (5 cities/states, 10 houses/apts) since I was 18 and left for college, so the whole moving thing I'm fine with, but I do miss my family. I worry about my Dad because he doesn't really have a partner in his life and he doesn't take great care of himself, I worry about being too far from my Grannie (Dad's mom), she's 88 and in excellent health and still lives on her own and drives herself, but I do worry. Especially as her daughter (my Aunt) gets a little weird about things like money and trying to convince her that she can't stay on her own, which is ludicrous at this point. My Mom is in UT, but she has her husband and friends there, and while I miss her sometimes, I know that it'll be ok. I do worry about my family being able to see my kids when I have them; FI and I have made an agreement to put money aside after the wedding to pay for my Mom to come when/if I have our first child to be there with me as soon as she can. It may not happen, but it's comforting to have that in mind, if that makes sense.

FI and I have tried to make the really conscious effort to call wherever we live "home" regularly (we slip a lot less now), because, as long as he's in the military, home is with each other, whatever location that may be.

calindi

I don't think I've ever felt particularly tied to one place.  I mean, it was super nice to be at  New England bar this weekend to watch the Patriots game - it was comfortable, you know?  But I don't really know what geographic location I'd identify as "home".  If anything, I miss DC (where I went to college) a lot more than I miss where I grew up.  But even then I'd feel stunted if I had to move back there permanently.  I'll always be a New England girl, but I just probably won't be living in New England.

Home to me is about family.  I'm home with FI, I'm home with my parents, I'm home with my brother.  Any of those places can feel like home, and I'm perfectly content with having more than one home.  I'm a bit of a nomad, and don't tie "home" to any particular place.  FI is the same way - we could move every year and be perfectly happy that way.

amh04

I never really grew up with family nearby accept for my parents and brothers - my dad was Navy so all we really had was each other. Once FI and I moved down to his new duty station I thought I missed what I consider my hometown a lot more. Its the first time I have been back since we moved 6 months ago. I really enjoyed knowing where I was at, and the food that I had missed and seeing my family. But it did make me wonder if we could get stationed back here, would we really want to? I love my family, but I don't know if I could handle being 10 minutes away from them again - like I kind of like having the distance between us. If that makes any sense... I guess I think I was expecting to of missed being here more than what I think I do now.

BinxRose

For me it's not necessarily my hometown, it's just all my friends and family. I hate not being able to see my niece/goddaughter grow up right in front of me. And my dad's wife's cooking...oh my goodness that woman can cook and I love her! And of course my Mom, I'm such a momma's girl. And my poor dad...I surprised him for his 50th last month when I flew home to find my dress. I walked into his office at work, and at first he didn't seem a bit surprised. Then it sunk in and he got all teary-eyed. I know he misses me terribly, and it makes me feel so bad. When I have had a chance to go home, it still feels like home. I don't want to live WITH my parents, but it would be nice to go to lunch or just stop by for a visit when I want.