Eighteen years, everything had changed. I could hardly recognize anything!

I'm an American living abroad, due to work and life in general I haven't been back home in eighteen years. I left home in the early 2000's and returned home in 2018 after finally getting some free time to do what I wanted to do. This is my experience.

Deciding to visit my family in Georgia (USA) I was given some time off as we were in a lull at work and I wouldn't be missed. If something did come up, I could handle it via the computer. So I purchased a round trip ticket and off I went.

I landed in Atlanta at 6 something in the evening, excitedly I hurried through all the hurdles one has to go through upon international travel, got my suitcases and made a bee-line for the exit. The doors opened, and I was PUNCHED in the face by something I have missed dearly... The heat and the sweet smell of home. It washed over my body as I exited the airport and I was thrilled to be back home.

First stop? Waffle House! I had missed real sweet tea and a bowl of chili with crackers and tobasco sauce for years, I had to have it as soon as humanly possible!

We came home to my child hood home, my room NEARLY the way I left it. My old TV, futon... It was all there, all my stuff in the closet, yep, accounted for! I spent a few moments walking through the house looking at what I hadn't seen in nearly two decades. Not much had changed!

Eventually my eye lids got the better of me and I dozed off in a bed I hadn't slept in since I was eighteen. I woke up almost feeling eighteen again the day after, we decided to go for a drive with family. I recognized everything in the neighborhood for the most part, but what really got me was just how big our town had truly gotten!

Then finally, my family asks me if I recognize the area after driving a bit, I sure did NOT! Until I saw a gas station that had been there since the early 90's, "oh" I thought to myself. No wonder it's all so different! The grocery store that was there since the 80's, gone. In its place, a soulless "neighborhood" walmart.

Well, thankfully I started recognizing more and more as I grew accustomed to looking for various landmarks. Like when I laid eyes on the one car wash place, long since closed. From there, I knew where I was.

The feeling of being somewhere that I knew like the back of my hand, and SHOULD know yet somehow looks and feels so alien at the same time threw me for a loop.

Thankfully, the mall was roughly exactly the same minus the arcade and KB Toys! Even Toys 'R' Us was the same... Amazing, it was like I stepped through time back into my childhood / teen years.

I was finally back home, and it took a lot of convincing for me to leave again. Thankfully 2023 will more than likely mark the last full year I live abroad.

Thanks for reading, wish I could purvey the absolute fascinating feelings I had returning to my old haunt that had a fresh coat of paint.

a reply to: Ulven

Best of luck. I could never settle into USA again.

Some can.

I feel better living abroad. Wife is from Philippines, we’ve bought land there and will be going back to live there.

Ah, the Philippines, a great country with great people! Lived in Cebu for almost eight months. Loved my time there and the food! (And that goes double for Lechon!)

I spent many countless nights abroad in Europe hoping, wishing, imagining and looking back at my time home longing to return. I was so home sick that I went through bouts of depression and had on many occasions planned a return visit. However, I could never "get away". So when I finally could, I was over joyed. This phrase is often over used, but it was literally a dream come true for me.

Anyway, hope you find happiness in the Philippines! Make sure to eat some Lechon for me, or at the very least, Jolly bee's!

a reply to: Ulven

My wife forced me to stop at Jollybee in Jacksonville Florida last week.

They are so expensive here. Irony!

I couldn’t stand to stay in the cities.

I lived on a beach south of Dumaguete for 3 years for 250/month. Beautiful.

a reply to: Ulven

There's a very interesting psychological element to returning "home" after having been gone for a long period of time. This is especially pronounced when your home's physical surroundings have remained largely unchanged. Psychologically, your mindset initially assumes that the people, and daily life, have also remained largely unchanged. This is usually not the case, and mentally you battle this dichotomy on a daily basis.

I grew up in a small western US town. Returning there is like walking into a time warp. Even all these decades later, not only does the town look the same, but many people even drive the same cars, and many of the establishments look exactly as they did 35 years ago. It's often a mind-trip when your brain creates expectations which reality doesn't live up to, or is dramatically different.

...and then you run into somebody you knew well all those years ago, and suddenly reality smacks you upside the head. While all the surroundings may look similar, the people don't. Things which were fun then now aren't even 'things' anymore, and activities which weren't even things back then are now what everyone does.

It can be a real shocker, and something which completely bends your brain for a while (sometimes it never really goes away for some).

I said, Georgia,
oh, Georgia
No peace I find (No peace I find)
Just an old, sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind (Georgia on my mind, oh)

"Georgia On My Mind" sung by Ray Charles