...you happen to have grown up there. Over the years I have grown further away from my hometown, Concord, Massachusetts. It's still a huge part of who I was and a large contributing factor to who I became. Truth be told though, it hasn't really affected my life in the last say five years other than being a little bit out of the way to other things I want to do when I want to visit my mother. I will occasionally take a hike somewhere I used to go but more often than not I just go there with a specific goal in mind (visit mom) and then with every intention to immediately leave as I have no other business there.
It's nearly impossible to completely detach yourself from where you came from unless you are making a conscious effort to do so and I see no need to. Concord was good to me at times, at times I put myself in situations where the town didn't seem so good to me. Either way the whole experience was just a fact of my life, nothing more and not much less either.
I still have terrific memories of Walden Pond pre-crowded and gross days. I still remember the Toy Shop and how cool the train going around it was. New London Style Pizza, Friendly's, the Post Office, the Cheese Shop, all of those things have a place in my memory and to a lesser extent, my heart. What really has managed to keep Concord in my heart is a more recent experience which has nothing to do with it being home; my working at Concord Academy during their summer camp (and eventually running the Teen Adventure program). All in all, this made me feel just as at home as knowing every road in the town, or knowing almost every face at my mom's bakery.
In truth there's no place like wherever you were the happiest. Since I'm happier now than I have ever been, there's no place like here.
