Monday, May 4, 2009

Can You Ever Go Home?

It is an eerie feeling for me to "go home." (By this, I mean to northern Minnesota, although HOME is St. Louis Park, really.) I have very mixed emotions when I go. The scenery is very comforting to me. The blasted stone that rises above the highway on the Iron Range. The rolling hills around Bemidji. The countryside makes me feel very at-ease. However, as soon as I roll into the residential areas, I practically feel queasy. The combination of the deteriorated buildings and my fairly fresh memories of growing up are a brutal combination. I have friends who grew up in the same town and have polar-opposite feelings about "going home." They don't seem to mind the five hour drive to spend the weekend. I have to psyche myself up to make the trek under the very best circumstances.

How about you?
What's it like to visit the town you grew up in?

5 comments:

Jared said...

Excellent question. I'll let you know if it ever happens!

Unknown said...

I've only been back a few times but it's not a place I willingly go. Too many bad memories I guess...

kbradseth said...

Coincidence that we are all talking about the same home town? I think not.

Melanie Tiemann said...

I miss the lakes! I miss my family...but I would visit only I would not go to stay.

Claudia said...

Mostly a good feeling, although there are definitely some bad memories I wish I could just forget. But with every visit I realize more and more that the comfort and familiarity of my hometown is now muffled by the fact that the good old days are over and it will never be the same. Kinda sad, actually.