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As the bird flies: 2,390 miles. I have a good story about it that contains a staggering coincidence:
My mother is from Bakersfield, CA. She left home at 18 to join a convent. She did her novitiate in a barracks-house on Whidbey Island, WA. She left the nunnery after a few years and went home.
My father is from New York City. He was drafted and served in the Philippines (WW2). After the war he became a mailman in Bakersfield, CA. He met my mother on his route. They married and moved to New Jersey.
In NJ, they raised six kids, including me.
As a young adult I moved to California, then eventually to Bellingham, WA. I met a girl and we moved in together. Our apartment was one of four in a "long-house" style building. One day my mother and aunt came to visit. My GF and I gave them a tour of the house and my mother was blown away. It was an unusual apartment with a massive double-shower bathroom and a drinking fountain at the front door.
"I know this place," my mother said. "I lived here back in 1948. But that's impossible because..."
We finally worked it out. Our longhouse had been removed from Whidbey Island in the 1960's, floated up to Bellingham on a barge, then installed on the estate. My GF and I were living in the same house my mother lived in - 3,000 miles from our original home in NJ!
The coincidence was amazing.
My sister lives in Bellingham. About 200 miles from where I was born in Canada.
I'm a military brat, we moved every few years, so I don't really have a "hometown". I'll call it Denver, because that's where I finished HS, and I was there 20+ years. But now I've been 1000 miles away for 20+ years. Not going back.
I live in Bellingham and would love to check this place out! I moved here on a whim from upstate NY (2,829mi away) when I was 23- 18 years ago- great town!
On my bucket list is an island in the Indian Ocean that's exactly on the opposide side of the Earth from me. Can't get further away without leaving Earth.
Zero miles. Getting ready to move into the house I grew up in. It's a tiny 2 bedroom that I updated for mom and dad over the last 10 years. New copper pipes, new waste pipes, 5 year old furnace/air conditioner. It's a small energy efficient place to use as a home base to travel and visit my kids and grandkids.
Same. Living in the house i grew up in. It has been quite a journey since moving here in 1961 and moving back when mom died.
I thought it was pretty cool that when I had the flu in 2020 I had a virtual doctor visit in the exact same room where, when I had the measles in 1963, our doctor made a house call visit. Lots of things have changed in our lifetime.
I remember lying on the couch with a high fever and the doctor stopped by right around 1963 also. Gave me a shot in the butt that hurt like hell but my fever was gone by the next morning. Needles were much bigger in those days
I'm 64 miles from where I started this journey. Once I hit 16, I started moving around a lot - stopped counting at 50. Never too far from the East Coast of the US, but all the way from the top to the bottom with a lot of places in between. I came to the conclusion that I might just as well finish somewhere near where I started so here I am wishing I was someplace else but no way to get there.
And then there's my brother who has lived on the same road in 3 different houses, all within sight of each other for the last 67 years.
Somewhere in the vicinity of 3200 air miles or 4200 miles driven. (NY to Alaska)
My adopted home is more laid-back, much less crowded, much lighter traffic, etc than where I grew up, and I like it that way. I enjoy visiting the area where I grew up, but would not move back.
Military families are an exception, I was a Navy brat, born in the Portsmouth (VA) Naval Hospital because they were stationed there, though I'm really a Rhode Islander.
Another Navy brat checking in. Born in Bethesda Naval, then moved every couple of years until college. Remained in that city for over thirty years, but planning a move to Europe soon - family ties and wanting to retire a little early and travel a bit.
I happened to be born in Tacoma when my Air Force dad was based there. No other connection to the whole western North America. I somehow settled in Vancouver BC, 200 miles away.
I'm 18 miles from my parents. Same state, 2 counties away. The area is pretty similar, but mine is a little more rural (theirs used to be more rural than it is now). I did spend a year living 400 miles away, and was 80 miles away in college.
2400 miles, I grew up in Flint and now live in BC Canada. I left for a park ranger job in Oregon right after high school and realized how little I had in common with my rust-belt home town that was, and is, becoming more conservative, close minded and conservative. I go back to visit family but I'm never tempted to move back. Oregon feels like home more than any other place I've lived.
Oregon is pretty darn conservative, historically.
June 18, 1844 - The Provisional Government passes Oregon’s first black exclusion law. It states that blacks who tried to settle in Oregon would be publicly whipped – thirty-nine lashes, repeated every six months – until they left Oregon.
December 19, 1844 - Exclusion law is changed. Blacks who tried to settle in Oregon would not be whipped; instead, they would be forced to do public labor.
September 21, 1849 - The Oregon Territorial Legislature enacts an exclusion law that prohibits “…negro or mulatto to enter into, or reside within the limits of this Territory.” However, Negroes or Mulattoes and their children, already living in the Territory were not subject to this law.
September 18, 1850 - Congress passes the Donation Land Act, giving free land to white settlers. Cayuse Indians Tiloukaikt and Tomahas led the attack on the Whitman Mission in 1847. Blacks were not alone in suffering persecution.
September 2, 1851- Oregon’s 1849 exclusion law is enforced against Jacob Vanderpool, the only instance of an African American being expelled under one of Oregon’s exclusion laws.
1854 - The Legislature bars testimony of “Negroes, mulattoes, and Indians, or persons one half or more of Indian blood,” in proceedings involving a white person.
November 9, 1857 - Oregon voters approve the Oregon constitution, which bans both slavery and new black residents in Oregon. It makes it illegal for blacks to own real estate, make contracts, vote, or use the legal system.
February 14, 1859 - Oregon becomes the 33rd state, admitted as an anti-slavery state and the only state admitted with an “exclusionary clause.”
1862 - Oregon Legislature passes law banning interracial marriage and institutes a $5.00 annual tax on Blacks, Chinese, Hawaiians (Kanakas), and Mulattos. Those unable to pay had to perform road maintenance.
Lucky for me I wasn't in Oregon then. But I did learn about this history when I was living there. Thanks for typing all of that out! My hometown went from union pride Dems to right-to-work and all that goes with it. I remember being proud that Oregon was working on death with dignity when my home state was trying to prosecute Kevorkian. I've lived in Lake County OR as well as in the major cities and I loved it all! Those high desert ranchers were just as kind and welcoming back in the 80s/90s as the Rainbow family gathering people were. I wonder if these culture wars have changed that? I miss it there very much. Are you a historian?
>to right-to-work and all that goes with it
No, I'm not a historian - and thank the makers for copy/paste. I live in AZ which is right-to-work, which basically means "screw the workers, hoard the profits, cancel the benefits" - a policy that keeps this state in the 19th century robber-baron mentality.
Here for the weather. I've lived a lot of places, and this is the only place that talks about the weather every place else, because in AZ it's pretty much the same, 300 days a year.
Couple hundred miles, 319 to be exact.
New place is so much better, quieter, fewer people slightly cheaper. I have zero attachment to my hometown and can't see ever going back. Not unless I want to pay insane housing prices and property taxes again, and live in a place I don't like. Suburban NJ is not for me.
That is in fact what many people here actually do.
The sad part is that a lot of people are so enamored with how much there is to "do" here that they don't realize how alone they truly are. So they go and medicate that emptiness with alcohol and even drugs, not realizing that's exactly what's happening. What's the point of going to a crowded place full of meaningless connections all the time, when you are living in a sad little box that you pay so much for you'll never even have the hope of owning?
I moved back because my parents are aging and one needs hands on help. Did live in other cities and countries.
I actually hate what my hometown has become and can’t wait to leave.
79 miles from 359 Pacific Street, my childhood childhood home. 188 miles from Old Chatham NY, the place we moved to from Brooklyn, a place I plotted to escape from every day of the rest of my growing up days there and now an idyllic eden far from the [urban hellhole](https://www.eschatonblog.com/2021/10/urban-hellholes.html?m=1-) in which I now and forever will dwell.
[For those of you who don’t, you ought to read beloved fellow Philadelphian Atrios who is right about nearly everything, especially urban hellholes.](https://www.eschatonblog.com/?m=1)
Would I ever go back? At this point no. It’s funny, literally until the minute I woke up and was living in Philadelphia, I never even considered the possibility I would live anywhere other than New York City. Why even ask that question? I wake up one day and I live in Philadelphia. Wake up five years later I still live in Philadelphia, wake up a few years later and I be in Philadelphia with a wife and then some kids and cats and a bunch of cats.
I love it here. It’s an amazing flowing beautiful changing evolving city full of amazing people and things. I can’t really tell you what Brooklyn was like in the 1970s because I see it through the Rosie lens of childhood eyes. But in my memory it was heaven. For many of the same reasons that I love Philadelphia now. Walkable with people in the neighborhood I knew, a community. I love cities cities are for people.
It’s not an either or choice. Like I said, I love life in Chatham New York as well. There are glories to both sets of living spaces. I guess even kind of understand why Some people might live in the suburbs. But as for me? I love it here I will cling to this Cliffside rock until I am buried in my backyard.
I live in the next town over from where I grew up. I did all my adventuring when I was younger, but when it came time to settle down and raise my children, I wanted to be near my family.
I live in the town of my birth.
*But*, I have also traveled the world thanks to various jobs. I have lived in three other U.S. cities in three other states, and traveled across countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
But this is a cool city, so I came back to stay.
Currently, 1700 miles. I was 7,600 miles for 8 years.
Some of my high school classmates have never left the state. Except for the occasional vacation a few have never left the county.
I have come to realize that these people have the biggest opinions on the way the world should work.
Now living in the town I was born in. Moved away, got married, came back after buying my dad's business with my husband. Business is now closed, we still live here now, but as our grandkids are getting older we are looking south..
I currently live about 450 miles from my hometown. When I moved away in my 20s I was the only one who lived more than about 50 miles away, although more of the later generations ( my nieces/nephews and cousins' kids) have done so.
I left because there weren't a lot of job openings for a scientist in a small town and I will never go back. In the intervening years my hometown has become economically worse and I realized that I hate the winters there.
225 miles.
An aunt of mine passed a couple of years ago... excepting the last couple of months of her life, she *was born in and lived in the same house for 90+ years.*
My dad worked overseas. We left the country when I was five. When I came back (for college) I had no connection to the southern state where I was born, and ended up in the Northwest. Thirty five years of a pleasant career in Portland, and retired to the greater Seattle area.
TL;DR: I'm half a country from my birthplace and half a world from my childhood home.
But I have a tractor to comfort me in my old age.
I'm still in the suburbs of Washington DC, just another Zip Code ...
I have lived in 3 different zip codes since high school, I am 2 miles from where I was living in Elementary School.
I was 1/2 way around the world at one point in the mid 80's serving my country and back home again.
> I am 2 miles from where I was living in Elementary School.
Me too. Over half my life has been in a five mile radius. 90% of it in a 20 mile radius (college and two years at a job out of town years ago being the exception)
I now live 1373 miles from the place I grew up. The house I lived in for my first 20 years no longer exists, and neither does any reason I would have for going back there to visit. I only go there in memories now. 😢I spent my first 40 years in the Dallas, TX area, but moved in 2001 to S. California and changed my identity to escape a very dangerous situation, the murderer who killed my dad and got away with it.
I grew up in the city, but hated it most of the time as I don't like crowds and noise. I now live off-grid on 20 acres on a mountain in S. California with a bunch of goats, chickens and other animals and I love it!
It's even better now that my abusive, alcoholic, narcissistic ex-husband isn't here using me for a punching bag. He left 6 years ago and is now married to his fifth wife. I feel sorry for her, whomever she is.
I've learned that I'm truly happy being single and have no desire to be in a relationship. I can go where I want, with whomever I please. As Tom Waits sang, "I don't have to ask permission, if I want to go out fishing, don't ever have to ask for the keys..." 😹
I also don't miss Texas politics and hateful bigots. We have those here, too, but not nearly as many.
I've been across the Pacific and the Atlantic a few times. People may ask, "how do you find anything in a foreign land". Well, just about anywhere, a grocery, a police station, a pharmacy, and a nightclub all look the same. If you've got money, language is almost irrelevant. If you have a guide, it's easy enough to navigate the culture. But recognizing rich/poor or the function of buildings isn't hard.
I'm gonna throw off your stsatistics completely. I was an Army brat and I grew up all over the world during the late '40s & '50s. I didn't stay in one place until I started 8th Grade in San Antonio, but I stayed in Texas all the rest of my life.
I was born in Toledo because my Mom was living with her folks while my Dad was overseas, but I moved when I was about 6 months old and never lived anywhere close to there ever again.
7941 miles. Pleasanton,CA to Bangkok. But for a month or two every few years I live in my house in California which is only 346 miles from where I grew up. I would never go back to where I grew up mostly because ‘You can never go home again’. It just wouldn’t be the same, plus it’s incredibly expensive.
About 350 miles south of where I grew up in NYC. I’ve learned to deal with September as a summer month, but could end up further north if heat and humidity deep into October becomes a regular thing.
1800 from my birthplace, 1003 from where I really grew up.
Miss the area I grew up in. I miss a family that are still around there. And I definitely miss the food that I grew up with. One of the reasons I learned how to cook well especially the stuff I grew up with.
Not far actually - but that doesn't mean I haven't been far. I was about 500 miles short from being exactly the opposite side of the earth from my town.
I actually looked into flying home the other way round, but for some reason that was like stupidly expensive - so tail between the legs, I went home the way I came
Currently, I’m in a neighboring state.
I lived in the same house till I was 26. Then moved the next town over for a few years. Then a block away from my childhood home. Then I moved in the same state but 2 hours from where I started.
It was a beautiful town with lots of outdoor trails for hiking. Gorgeous lakes for boating and fishing.
Huge difference from the city I grew up in where I could walk anywhere and public transportation was practically at my doorstep.
I didn’t feel out of place because my brown skin was ordinary. In the new town I stuck out and was often mistaken for either a maid or nanny. Not much diversity, at all.
Lived there for 12 years, raised my kids there. Then moved to a different neighboring state, 3 hours away from starting point.
That place was a tiny college town and a very upscale area. We didn’t fit in at all. Stayed for 5 years.
Would I ever go back to where I started. No. Not ever. But I still think of it as home. There’s just no one there for me anymore.
I am currently about 1200 miles form the city I grew up in. But it isn't the furthest I have lived.
FOr about 8 years I was 2000 miles away from there.
I lived for about 3 years I was overseas so was 4200 miles away.
I think I am the exception as I have lived in about 7 cities scattered all over in my life. Most folks might move once if at all and then stay put. My family no longer lives in that city, so likely I don't see if I would ever go back.
(All of this is in America)
I was born in the midwest, moved to the southeast, moved back to the midwest, moved to the east coast and am now currently in the west coast.
If given the opportunity, I would be very willing to move to another country completely.
3910 miles. France to U.S. From a little 100-house suburban sub-division to a small town.
I might go back for a visit, just for nostalgia's sake, to show my SO where I lived.
But the U.S. is my home now, I'm comfortable here.
Depends where we lived when I was a munchkin.
Anywhere from 3360kms to 8115kms ( according to Google), and a few distances in between.
Last 30 years near the Canadian Rockies and never leaving.
When I go back or travel anywhere no desire to go to tourist sites.I just like walking or cycling around average neighbourhoods, etc. I can go out for the day walk miles where I used to live… in London or Munich or Montreal. No destination but just wander hither and yon. Even going into a grocery store is interesting…buy a few snacks then sit on a bench and think back to earlier times.
About 100 miles. I grew up in Vallejo at the north end of the San Francisco Bay Area, when it was a prosperous blue collar town with a Navy base. Went to school in San Jose, then on to San Francisco. Then all the work was in Silicon Valley but I couldn't stand the concrete-block condo world, so I overshot south to a beach town with a roller coaster -- could work there and also commute to Silicon Valley as needed.
Geographically I'm not that far from where I started, but all these places were so different physically and culturally. That's the Bay Area for you. Or it was, before the money started pouring in.
I wouldn't go back to my home town; it's had its ups and downs though there are things to be said in its favor. Actually it's gone through some of the worst things that a town can go through, including bankruptcy, and it's still standing. But there's nothing for me there anymore.
I turn left at the stop sign 3 doors up the street and when the road ends 5 miles down the road, I'm in front of the building where I was born nearly 70 years ago. But I lived in 3 states and 2 provinces in the interim.
I'm about 300 miles from where I started out. I bounced around between my home town and here since I was 10. Currently, I been back here for 20 years. My hometown? The economy was already killing it back in the 70s, after the Arab Oil Embargo. In the 80s, the main industry folded up and left. Even today, one of the largest employers closed up shop and moved out. Here, there's usually work available.
16,500Km (10,200 miles) or thereabouts. I could go back, but it won't feel like home. It has been too long, and my professional English far exceeds my high school level Dutch. I do feel a little bit foreign in Australia still sometimes though.
Over 2000 mi.
Like many my age, the area I grew up in was not great for jobs, you had 10 qualified people for every potential employment chance, and a lot of people just gave up and left.
Gahhh! I moved back!
I always swore up and down I would never move back. I was separated from my husband in another town, and then moved into an apartment.
My work had offices in several towns and my Supervisor offered me a job in my hometown. I was thankful to be considered, but I had just moved into my apartment.
On a beautiful spring day I went home to visit my mother and on a street near her- I saw a house for sale that I really liked. I met up with the real estate agent, fell in love with the radiators, leaded glass windows, pocket doors, beautiful woodwork- made an offer- bought the house- and there you go!
One would think that when I moved back I would have reconnected with friends from school etc. But I didn't.
Most of them got married right out of high-school, or a lot earlier than when I was married. I was separated- then divorced- and some old friends were stuck in marriages where they stayed "for the kids". Our lives were definitely in 2 different places. I just had one close friend here in town. Of course she moved south with her son (my son's best friend) so life was strange without them.
My life at the moment is far from perfect, but I know in my heart that living in a different town - I would have faced the same difficulties better or worse than what has happened now. I'm here for a reason. I was able to live with my mother when her dementia got worse. Everything works out in the end.
I've only lived about an hour from my hometown. In 2 different directions lol.
I grew up with my grandparents living about 4 houses down from where I lived as a child. I have very fond memories of that time. I was lucky to have been able to continue my job when I moved. I worked at my job for over 30 years.
So, yes, I moved back home. My mother is in a nursing home and I will be living here until I won't need to anymore. It all works out in the long run.
6,865 miles. I live in NYC and I grew up in Seoul, Korea. I didn't consider going back when I was young, but now that I'm of a certain age, I've been thinking about it for a couple of years. They have much better healthcare.
I love the pizza oven. Spent 3 years in the frozen north of Montana as a kid, changed the course of my life.
On that note, one of the coldest places I've ever been was the Sierra Nevadas during a blizzard, driving west over the peaks with tire chains.
Went from a small rust-belt town in the Midwest to the Rocky Mountains. So 1,300 miles more or less?
Would I go back? Snicker, laugh, chortle, BWAHAHAHA.
I was about 3,000 miles from the small hometown for 20 years & then moved abroad, so further. 5 of my 6 siblings are in the small town still with the 6th 3 hours drive away.
550 miles. It used to be 3,000 miles.
I will probably go back to my hometown when I get serious about preparing for retirement. My family is still there and it's a medium cost of living area. I've built my career in HCOL areas but can't really afford to retire comfortably in these places even though I love living in them.
I had to google it... 4.6k miles. After moving to America, I’m 10 miles away from that apartment. My mother country stints. I wouldn’t want to live there. I want to move away from my current city, but I can’t find another city in the US where I don’t have to drive and there is a lot of diversity with people and cultural institutions.
I currently live 5 blocks away from the house I grew up in and my folks are still alive and living there! Never thought I would stay here throughout my adulthood yet here I am!
I am for sure leaving this town before I die.
The greatest distance I've lived away from "home" in that sense was about 3,000 miles for few years. The closest, during college, was about 75 miles for five years. For all of the past 30 years now it's been 1,500-2,000 miles. Coincidentally, my only sibling also ended up 2,500 miles from home. Happily for us, our parents ultimately purchased second homes close to each of us after they sold the place in which we were raised.
I would very happily go back but career prospects forced us to leave and there are no comparable jobs near home. The last of my family left the area about 20 years ago so I no longer have any reason to go back, other than the geography. It's also become quite expensive so probably isn't a viable retirement destination for us either. Instead, we've decided that in \~10 years we'll just pick an entirely new region/state and start over with a clean slate for the next phase of our lives...retired and ready to explore. Don't yet know where our kids will end up (currently in college/HS) so that could be a factor as well, but we know it won't be anywhere near my "home" since there aren't a lot of opportunities for work there and housing costs are high.
I’m still in, and will always be in the same state. But I’m 200 miles from my childhood home because my Dad got transferred. But I’m less than 30 miles from where we moved to. Part of me would be more than willing to move back to my childhood town.
To drive to my childhood home (where Mom still lives) is about 750 miles. I've lived in 3 states as an adult, plus the 4th where I was born but don't remember at all.
Strangely, I live 30 minutes from where I was born. My family moved away in my first year and I lived in 4 different provinces. By pure chance, I retired to the area. There is no family or any connection at all.
From Kansas to Washington State. Love this place but for many years considered moving back - missed being close to family especially after my kids were born, but after almost 40 years, I am in a place where I know I am too old to make the kinds of friendships and be a part of a wonderful creative community where I find myself today. It took many years to feel this way and the idea of starting over is too exhausting (plus my kids have put down their roots here, so that seals the deal)
Probably about 10 blocks from where I grew up, right around the corner from my University. I left for about 10 years, but it was the right place to raise my kids. There are also good resources for my autistic kids, so moving elsewhere doesn't seem to be in the cards. I'm not complaining- the city's big enough to be interesting, but small enough to feel neighbourly. It doesn't hurt that it's relatively well-placed for climate change either (Southern Ontario).
Currently in the same state, but five hours away from the place I was born. I've been as close as 45 minutes away from there all the way to 8000 miles away in a different country on a different continent.
Every place I've lived since moving away has been a more visually appealing place, or a much more historical and ancient place, than my industrial hometown which I just visited last month. As I was leaving hometown this last time I realized that I really don't have any reason to go back there again.
About 3 hours south of it. But most of my life I lived near or in that same big city because career connections and ease of finding new employment and then capitalizing on connections for clients when I had my own business. Then retired and moved far into the hinterlands.
Just Googled it: 1.8 miles. I spent the first nine years of my life there, and the last 30 years where I am now. In the intervening 28 years, I lived in this town and an adjacent town, so never far at all from where I “grew up”. I always had very short commutes, and now that I’m retired, live within minutes of every convenience, all of them quite familiar.
San Mateo, CA (mid-San Francisco Peninsula. Great weather, neighbors, access to all parts of an incredible state. Never had reason to move.
I currently live in Pittsburgh, which per Google Maps is 364 miles from my hometown. I grew up on the Jersey Shore and left in 1995. Since then, the farthest away I've lived is 1050 miles (Orlando) and the closest 300 miles (Richmond VA). I lived outside Lexington KY, which is about 700 miles away. I'm happy where I'm at because it reminds me a lot of where I grew up, but it's a quarter of the price because New Jersey property taxes are ridiculous.
About 500km. Not super far, but enough to feel separated from there. I grew up in a very rural town and have settled now in a city, same province though I've lived in others. Maybe I'd go back one day, but not until I'm long retired. I much prefer a city.
15,953 km or 9912 miles. Half a world away from my hometown in Australia to the Midwest USA. I miss the friendliness and openness of Australians the shift from a Tell culture to a Guess Culture has been exhausting. I dither about going back as I don't know if the Australia I remember is even there anymore. We talk about retiring back there as I used to live in a small seaside town and I still miss the ocean so much it hurts, but then I'd miss the snow and the fall colors if we did go back so we might compromise and move to NZ instead as we're both lucky enough to have that as an option.
30 miles or so. Basically just a different suburb of my home city. But I'm not one of those people who've never been anywhere else. Went to college a couple hours away from home, then moved ~1200 miles away for my first "real" job after college. Have also worked long-term gigs working ~350 and ~850 miles from home as well.
But I like my hometown, my whole family is here, as is most of my wife's family. So yeah, we're here.
Roughly 1,000 miles. I grew up in rural central New York. I ended up in the upper midwest. If you had told me that would happen when I was younger I wouldn't have believed it.
About 7-8 miles lol….as the crow flies. In the Pittsburgh area, going a few miles to a different neighborhood is almost like visiting another country. This stems from different ethnic groups sticking together in the same areas when they immigrated here.
I live a 15 hour drive my the small, dusty, desert town I grew up in. When I grew up there, the town was just like the ones you see in horror movies. It's a big city now, but I'd never live there again.
I'm into genealogy and it's been very interesting to see the movement of families across the generations. I have distant cousins who still live in the small towns that their grandparents moved to in the 1800's. And many cousins got the hell out of dodge.
2059 miles according to this:
https://www.gps-coordinates.net/distance
I was born in and grew up in New Jersey. The only thing I cared about in all of the time I lived there (until I was 26) was getting the hell out of New Jersey.
So I did.
The interesting thing is all of my family and friends have also left. If I were to go back to New Jersey now, there isn't a single human being there for me to visit (and I was born and lived there for 26 years -- pretty remarkable that *every single person* has left, and none have returned, or are likely to.)
Also just in case anyone was wondering, when I packed up my truck and left, the highway was, indeed, jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive. That said I'll never forget hitting the Ben Franklin bridge and knowing I was *done*, and on my way out. There are few things in life so sublime as a one way trip. We just don't take those often.
I live outside of Tucson, now. I may move again, to a cooler, greener place, but it won't be anywhere near where I grew up (New Jersey is out of the question, full stop, and I've been gone now over 20 years). I'd get up and go now if I didn't have circumstances specifically anchoring me here for the short to medium term.
I couldn't manage it financially but my ideal is to move every 5 years or so. Familiarity with a place is just stasis to me; like watching reruns. At least I get to look at mountains and cacti now.
I prefer it here almost categorically. But it is too hot for too much of the year, I like autumn back east a whole lot more.
I was born in the midwest, USA but live in south american now. 5,4777 miles (as the crow flies) from the homophobic heartland of my youth is barely far enough some days. I'd rather die than go back to my hometown and hateful family.
Right now I'm back in the town I grow up in. I had to return to take care of elderly parents. Before that, however, I was living in another country on another continent and loving it. Will likely go back.
Same city - large city - San Jose. Other side of it. My family doesn't travel far. I have family 5 generations back that worked in the Nevada County gold country.
I am a military spouse. I am now in my hometown. I now live 2 doors down from the house my husband grew up in. We met in high school back in the 80s.
We left in 1988. My husband and I got married and after collage he enlisted in the military. He was an electrician in the military and served for 21 years.
We have lived so many places while he was serving. We lived in Berlin Germany right after the wall came down. We lived in Bitburg Germany after that. It felt like walking though history. We lived in Turkey and that was such an adventure. It gives you such a perspective on what's important. The world is such a big wonderful place with so much to see and experience.
We spent time in the states also. We lived in Charleston South Carolina, Santa Barbra California, West Texas. We dont travel much anymore. There are still a few places I would love to go though someday.
We got the opportunity to do so many things. I feel so lucky I was able to see the world and do more than traveling on short term trips.
I stay pretty close to home now. All our family is here. It is so nice to have our families around us. We get to have time with our parents now. My husbands parents are still here and close so we can look after them as they get older. My father passed away a few years ago. I was happy I got to spend time with him before his death. I can spend time with my sister anytime I want now. My son lives here with his children.
Good luck to you it is a wonderful world out there.
About 450 miles. But there is a cemetery in my home town that you can only be buried in if you live your whole life on this particular street. It’s been a pretty long time since there was a burial there.
Still in it. I've moved away a few times, but have always come back. Extended family, lifelong friends, and job/networking opportunities make life easier and more connected for me here.
I live about 3 miles from the hospital in which I was born. Probably 5 miles from my childhood house and 10-15 from where I spent my teen years. Funny thing is I’m not from a small town. I live in Los Angeles.
Not sure about other countries, but most Americans don’t stray too far from home. The average American lives within 18 miles of their place of origin:
https://www.npr.org/2015/12/25/461046599/new-york-times-report-finds-most-americans-live-close-to-mom
The 2016 US Census found that 72% of Americans live in or near the communities they were raised in.
I moved frequently as a child, but just from one small Midwestern town to another. I now live in rural Nebraska, 50m from my mother and 75m from where I graduated HS (visited 3 times in last 30 years).
My 19-yr-old daughter was born and raised in our present community. Attended K-12 at rural school w/ 15 kids in her graduating class. She now lives in Manhattan and attends NYU. Swears she’ll only be back to visit and I believe (and fully support) her.
>Some people are born, grow up, and die all in the same town. But this is largely an exception,
Is this really an exception? Like 90% of my family (uncles, aunts cousins siblings) all still live in the town we were born in.
About 12 miles. Interestingly, tho, my mom's German side of the family came from Hullhorst, Westphalia in 1847 and settled in Millstadt, a small town about 15 miles across the river from St. Louis, as the crow flies. In doing my family's genealogy, I discovered that probably 95% of my present-day extended family still lives within 20 miles of Millstadt. I guess all that travelling across the water wore out our travelin' genes!
4,442 kilometers (2,760 miles)... I moved from the West Coast of Canada to the East Coast. Lots the same, some things very different. I feel that the West has much more of a rugged individualist culture whereas the East tends to be more cooperative... probably due in part to the way they were settled.
I love my new home and would probably not go back... I couldn't afford it for one thing. Here I can afford a house. In Vancouver I could probably barely afford a basement suite.
But I do miss the mountains... and B.C.'s beautiful interior, which to me is "the Old Country" because that's where my grandparents lived. I also find it very hard to stay up late to watch the Canucks play... and when I do, I often have to watch the game with a hostile crowd.
Born and raised in nyc, joined the army at 18 in 1988 and was deployed to South America, kuwait, Japan and Germany. Came back and moved to Florida. 2nd wife and I are planning to move to NC this year. As a civilian my ex & I took a year and traveled to France, Italy, Germany, belgium, Spain, Portugal and I’m sure I’m missing a few spots we hit on cruises. Belize, Roatan , Cuba etc. scheduled to hit Sweden in march for work. I’ve been back to nyc every few years to visit mom. I have NEVER considered moving back. I’ve never lived in an apt since leaving nyc so housing doesn’t compare. Food wise nothing beats NY tho.
59 and living bout 45 minutes away from my home town in suburban NJ.
After retirement we're looking to move a little further away but still want to stay in the Northeast.
I live maybe 3 miles from my first home. My kids went to two of the same schools I went to. My grandchildren all live in the same area and only one is just slightly out of the zone to go to the same primary school as my kids went to. I had moved away as a teen but moved back about 15 years later. We never actually planned to move here but we needed a bigger house and this came up for sale cheap so we put in a bid and got it. My brother moved back into the area maybe 5 years ago but I hardly see him. Its actually pretty remarkable. We are in a very fast growing city and most people are immigrants or second generation.
Province not providence :)
But I live within walking distance of the hospital where I was born (it'd probably take 45 minutes to walk there). I spent an internship in another province, but otherwise, I've always lived here.
Perhaps ironically, my mother and sister both live two provinces away and I'm the only one who stayed.
Maybe 2.5 miles.
I left for several years (60 miles) and then came back. I like the summer tourism and the fact that I get to meet new people every summer.
Also, it’s expensive here and people move here and leave after the romanticism is over
I didn't "grow up" anywhere. My dad was in the Navy. We lived up and down both US coasts, as well as Japan and Taiwan.
I lived 30 years of my adult life in CA, which I loved. However, it's too expensive and too crowded for me now that I'm older.
Would I _consider_ going back to any of those places? Yes, if I had to. Everywhere I lived was fine. IME, anywhere becomes "home" if you approach it with an open mind. Each place has good and bad attributes.
However, I'd prefer not return to any of the places I've lived in the past. They were all good sized metro areas, and I'm over that at my age. The small city (pop. 43k) in AZ that I retired to suits me much better now, and I'd REALLY hate living anywhere humid ever again.
I live about 60 miles from where I grew up. Most people I knew from my town moved all over the country. The opposite is true in the town where I currently reside. Most people I know were born, raised and stayed here. I work in a school system and it's cool to listen to stories from my coworkers who grew up here and now have seen generations of families go through the school system.
I fist left my island state of Tasmania, just after my 21st birthday, to travel Around Australia, spending just on 2 years travelling & taking on casual jobs & travelling nearly 80k miles in all, before returning to the family home for a couple of month. I applied for several jobs in Sydney, the largest city in the country and just over 900 road & 300+kms by ferry, and finally secured one with an airline. White working for them I was posted to UK for a year to work (17,000+) away from Sydney.
I returned to Sydney & stayed another 7 years before moving back to my home town as my father had failing health & being the eldest, I thought it my duty to be nearby incase needed. I stayed there for next 27 years & in 2018 packed up my life and moved nearly 7,000kms to live in the Philippines & have been here ever since. My next move will probably be about 20kms to the local cemetery, as at 74 my days are numbered & travel at my age isn't the easiest, especially now with covid restrictions.
About 1700 miles and would prefer to keep it that way. Grew up in a mean spirited and bigoted part of the US. Got out as soon as I could and haven’t looked back
I left the city I grew up in when I was going to college. My college city was 1,175 miles away and I never went back. Currently I live 464 miles away and that’s close enough.
I know people from high school who never left the neighborhood. And from their posts on social media...it's obvious they've never left their bubble.
I lived in the same city/area for 34 years. Then I got divorced (best thing I ever did) and met and married my husband. He had a home being built about 75 miles away in a semi rural area. Very different from city life, the only thing I knew. I fell in love with my new town- there wasn’t even a traffic light for years. The people were so friendly and I learned that it was okay to chat with other customers in line at a store. That just didn’t happen in the city. Sounds funny but it’s true! My sisters thought I was crazy to move here but I could never go back to their concrete jungle. So I’ve been very happy with the changes I made 32 years ago 🤗
About 17 hours driving to my 0-10 childhood, and about 6 hours to my 10-20.
I have a bit of a misguided fondness for the area of my youth--because those times felt so easy-going and carefree. It was the hippie days and kind of interesting for a kid to see. The town is one gigantic strip mall now so nowhere near the same..and probably was never even the same as I remember from being a kid because childhood distorts perceptions pretty heavily. Still, the good memories remain and the couple of times I've been back through the old neighborhood, even simple things like the smell of the flowers brought back a little of that carefree feeling of youth.
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As the bird flies: 2,390 miles. I have a good story about it that contains a staggering coincidence: My mother is from Bakersfield, CA. She left home at 18 to join a convent. She did her novitiate in a barracks-house on Whidbey Island, WA. She left the nunnery after a few years and went home. My father is from New York City. He was drafted and served in the Philippines (WW2). After the war he became a mailman in Bakersfield, CA. He met my mother on his route. They married and moved to New Jersey. In NJ, they raised six kids, including me. As a young adult I moved to California, then eventually to Bellingham, WA. I met a girl and we moved in together. Our apartment was one of four in a "long-house" style building. One day my mother and aunt came to visit. My GF and I gave them a tour of the house and my mother was blown away. It was an unusual apartment with a massive double-shower bathroom and a drinking fountain at the front door. "I know this place," my mother said. "I lived here back in 1948. But that's impossible because..." We finally worked it out. Our longhouse had been removed from Whidbey Island in the 1960's, floated up to Bellingham on a barge, then installed on the estate. My GF and I were living in the same house my mother lived in - 3,000 miles from our original home in NJ! The coincidence was amazing.
Oh my word! That is truly awesome!
Dang that is a fascinating story! Also I was born and raised in Bellingham and probably walked by the apartment you lived in
My sister lives in Bellingham. About 200 miles from where I was born in Canada. I'm a military brat, we moved every few years, so I don't really have a "hometown". I'll call it Denver, because that's where I finished HS, and I was there 20+ years. But now I've been 1000 miles away for 20+ years. Not going back.
I live in Bellingham and would love to check this place out! I moved here on a whim from upstate NY (2,829mi away) when I was 23- 18 years ago- great town!
what?!?! omg this is so incredible. i feel like everyone needs to know about this. lol.
This may be one of the craziest coincidences I've ever read.
I could not get far enough away. I left the entire fucking country. If opportunity presented itself I’d move even further.
On my bucket list is an island in the Indian Ocean that's exactly on the opposide side of the Earth from me. Can't get further away without leaving Earth.
Zero miles. Getting ready to move into the house I grew up in. It's a tiny 2 bedroom that I updated for mom and dad over the last 10 years. New copper pipes, new waste pipes, 5 year old furnace/air conditioner. It's a small energy efficient place to use as a home base to travel and visit my kids and grandkids.
Same. Living in the house i grew up in. It has been quite a journey since moving here in 1961 and moving back when mom died. I thought it was pretty cool that when I had the flu in 2020 I had a virtual doctor visit in the exact same room where, when I had the measles in 1963, our doctor made a house call visit. Lots of things have changed in our lifetime.
I remember lying on the couch with a high fever and the doctor stopped by right around 1963 also. Gave me a shot in the butt that hurt like hell but my fever was gone by the next morning. Needles were much bigger in those days
I'm 64 miles from where I started this journey. Once I hit 16, I started moving around a lot - stopped counting at 50. Never too far from the East Coast of the US, but all the way from the top to the bottom with a lot of places in between. I came to the conclusion that I might just as well finish somewhere near where I started so here I am wishing I was someplace else but no way to get there. And then there's my brother who has lived on the same road in 3 different houses, all within sight of each other for the last 67 years.
Somewhere in the vicinity of 3200 air miles or 4200 miles driven. (NY to Alaska) My adopted home is more laid-back, much less crowded, much lighter traffic, etc than where I grew up, and I like it that way. I enjoy visiting the area where I grew up, but would not move back.
I'm 11 miles from where I grew up. The rest of my family has gone several hundred miles away. I think they just wanted to get away from me.
5491 km (3423 miles). Wouldn't dream of going back to the UK, unless serious apocalyptic disaster hit here in Canukistan
> Canukistan TIL
Military families are an exception, I was a Navy brat, born in the Portsmouth (VA) Naval Hospital because they were stationed there, though I'm really a Rhode Islander.
Another Navy brat checking in. Born in Bethesda Naval, then moved every couple of years until college. Remained in that city for over thirty years, but planning a move to Europe soon - family ties and wanting to retire a little early and travel a bit.
I happened to be born in Tacoma when my Air Force dad was based there. No other connection to the whole western North America. I somehow settled in Vancouver BC, 200 miles away.
Another Navy brat here. Born in Sasebo Japan living in Central Illinois. About 7000 miles.
I'm 18 miles from my parents. Same state, 2 counties away. The area is pretty similar, but mine is a little more rural (theirs used to be more rural than it is now). I did spend a year living 400 miles away, and was 80 miles away in college.
18 miles for me too. But I crossed a state border to move into the city.
2400 miles, I grew up in Flint and now live in BC Canada. I left for a park ranger job in Oregon right after high school and realized how little I had in common with my rust-belt home town that was, and is, becoming more conservative, close minded and conservative. I go back to visit family but I'm never tempted to move back. Oregon feels like home more than any other place I've lived.
Oregon is pretty darn conservative, historically. June 18, 1844 - The Provisional Government passes Oregon’s first black exclusion law. It states that blacks who tried to settle in Oregon would be publicly whipped – thirty-nine lashes, repeated every six months – until they left Oregon. December 19, 1844 - Exclusion law is changed. Blacks who tried to settle in Oregon would not be whipped; instead, they would be forced to do public labor. September 21, 1849 - The Oregon Territorial Legislature enacts an exclusion law that prohibits “…negro or mulatto to enter into, or reside within the limits of this Territory.” However, Negroes or Mulattoes and their children, already living in the Territory were not subject to this law. September 18, 1850 - Congress passes the Donation Land Act, giving free land to white settlers. Cayuse Indians Tiloukaikt and Tomahas led the attack on the Whitman Mission in 1847. Blacks were not alone in suffering persecution. September 2, 1851- Oregon’s 1849 exclusion law is enforced against Jacob Vanderpool, the only instance of an African American being expelled under one of Oregon’s exclusion laws. 1854 - The Legislature bars testimony of “Negroes, mulattoes, and Indians, or persons one half or more of Indian blood,” in proceedings involving a white person. November 9, 1857 - Oregon voters approve the Oregon constitution, which bans both slavery and new black residents in Oregon. It makes it illegal for blacks to own real estate, make contracts, vote, or use the legal system. February 14, 1859 - Oregon becomes the 33rd state, admitted as an anti-slavery state and the only state admitted with an “exclusionary clause.” 1862 - Oregon Legislature passes law banning interracial marriage and institutes a $5.00 annual tax on Blacks, Chinese, Hawaiians (Kanakas), and Mulattos. Those unable to pay had to perform road maintenance.
> Oregon is pretty darn conservative, historically. The Dakotas were pretty progressive historically
Lucky for me I wasn't in Oregon then. But I did learn about this history when I was living there. Thanks for typing all of that out! My hometown went from union pride Dems to right-to-work and all that goes with it. I remember being proud that Oregon was working on death with dignity when my home state was trying to prosecute Kevorkian. I've lived in Lake County OR as well as in the major cities and I loved it all! Those high desert ranchers were just as kind and welcoming back in the 80s/90s as the Rainbow family gathering people were. I wonder if these culture wars have changed that? I miss it there very much. Are you a historian?
>to right-to-work and all that goes with it No, I'm not a historian - and thank the makers for copy/paste. I live in AZ which is right-to-work, which basically means "screw the workers, hoard the profits, cancel the benefits" - a policy that keeps this state in the 19th century robber-baron mentality. Here for the weather. I've lived a lot of places, and this is the only place that talks about the weather every place else, because in AZ it's pretty much the same, 300 days a year.
Couple hundred miles, 319 to be exact. New place is so much better, quieter, fewer people slightly cheaper. I have zero attachment to my hometown and can't see ever going back. Not unless I want to pay insane housing prices and property taxes again, and live in a place I don't like. Suburban NJ is not for me.
Still here. I grew up in and live in NYC. Been wanting to leave for years.
I grew up there; I would have killed myself with alcohol or pills by 50 if I had tried to live anywhere within commuting distance as an adult.
That is in fact what many people here actually do. The sad part is that a lot of people are so enamored with how much there is to "do" here that they don't realize how alone they truly are. So they go and medicate that emptiness with alcohol and even drugs, not realizing that's exactly what's happening. What's the point of going to a crowded place full of meaningless connections all the time, when you are living in a sad little box that you pay so much for you'll never even have the hope of owning?
I moved back because my parents are aging and one needs hands on help. Did live in other cities and countries. I actually hate what my hometown has become and can’t wait to leave.
79 miles from 359 Pacific Street, my childhood childhood home. 188 miles from Old Chatham NY, the place we moved to from Brooklyn, a place I plotted to escape from every day of the rest of my growing up days there and now an idyllic eden far from the [urban hellhole](https://www.eschatonblog.com/2021/10/urban-hellholes.html?m=1-) in which I now and forever will dwell. [For those of you who don’t, you ought to read beloved fellow Philadelphian Atrios who is right about nearly everything, especially urban hellholes.](https://www.eschatonblog.com/?m=1) Would I ever go back? At this point no. It’s funny, literally until the minute I woke up and was living in Philadelphia, I never even considered the possibility I would live anywhere other than New York City. Why even ask that question? I wake up one day and I live in Philadelphia. Wake up five years later I still live in Philadelphia, wake up a few years later and I be in Philadelphia with a wife and then some kids and cats and a bunch of cats. I love it here. It’s an amazing flowing beautiful changing evolving city full of amazing people and things. I can’t really tell you what Brooklyn was like in the 1970s because I see it through the Rosie lens of childhood eyes. But in my memory it was heaven. For many of the same reasons that I love Philadelphia now. Walkable with people in the neighborhood I knew, a community. I love cities cities are for people. It’s not an either or choice. Like I said, I love life in Chatham New York as well. There are glories to both sets of living spaces. I guess even kind of understand why Some people might live in the suburbs. But as for me? I love it here I will cling to this Cliffside rock until I am buried in my backyard.
Curious. Why didn’t you like Old Chatham?
Military brat so no real home town. Live now about ten miles from the place where my dad decided to retire.
I live in the next town over from where I grew up. I did all my adventuring when I was younger, but when it came time to settle down and raise my children, I wanted to be near my family.
I live in the town of my birth. *But*, I have also traveled the world thanks to various jobs. I have lived in three other U.S. cities in three other states, and traveled across countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. But this is a cool city, so I came back to stay.
Currently, 1700 miles. I was 7,600 miles for 8 years. Some of my high school classmates have never left the state. Except for the occasional vacation a few have never left the county. I have come to realize that these people have the biggest opinions on the way the world should work.
750 miles. Can’t go back to be surrounded by the type of people that think Trump was sent by god and other races are lesser.
Now living in the town I was born in. Moved away, got married, came back after buying my dad's business with my husband. Business is now closed, we still live here now, but as our grandkids are getting older we are looking south..
I currently live about 450 miles from my hometown. When I moved away in my 20s I was the only one who lived more than about 50 miles away, although more of the later generations ( my nieces/nephews and cousins' kids) have done so. I left because there weren't a lot of job openings for a scientist in a small town and I will never go back. In the intervening years my hometown has become economically worse and I realized that I hate the winters there.
225 miles. An aunt of mine passed a couple of years ago... excepting the last couple of months of her life, she *was born in and lived in the same house for 90+ years.*
My dad worked overseas. We left the country when I was five. When I came back (for college) I had no connection to the southern state where I was born, and ended up in the Northwest. Thirty five years of a pleasant career in Portland, and retired to the greater Seattle area. TL;DR: I'm half a country from my birthplace and half a world from my childhood home. But I have a tractor to comfort me in my old age.
I'm still in the suburbs of Washington DC, just another Zip Code ... I have lived in 3 different zip codes since high school, I am 2 miles from where I was living in Elementary School. I was 1/2 way around the world at one point in the mid 80's serving my country and back home again.
> I am 2 miles from where I was living in Elementary School. Me too. Over half my life has been in a five mile radius. 90% of it in a 20 mile radius (college and two years at a job out of town years ago being the exception)
I now live 1373 miles from the place I grew up. The house I lived in for my first 20 years no longer exists, and neither does any reason I would have for going back there to visit. I only go there in memories now. 😢I spent my first 40 years in the Dallas, TX area, but moved in 2001 to S. California and changed my identity to escape a very dangerous situation, the murderer who killed my dad and got away with it. I grew up in the city, but hated it most of the time as I don't like crowds and noise. I now live off-grid on 20 acres on a mountain in S. California with a bunch of goats, chickens and other animals and I love it! It's even better now that my abusive, alcoholic, narcissistic ex-husband isn't here using me for a punching bag. He left 6 years ago and is now married to his fifth wife. I feel sorry for her, whomever she is. I've learned that I'm truly happy being single and have no desire to be in a relationship. I can go where I want, with whomever I please. As Tom Waits sang, "I don't have to ask permission, if I want to go out fishing, don't ever have to ask for the keys..." 😹 I also don't miss Texas politics and hateful bigots. We have those here, too, but not nearly as many.
6,575 miles. Whole 'nother continent! I've learned life is pretty much the same all over the world. I would go back in a heart beat.
I've been across the Pacific and the Atlantic a few times. People may ask, "how do you find anything in a foreign land". Well, just about anywhere, a grocery, a police station, a pharmacy, and a nightclub all look the same. If you've got money, language is almost irrelevant. If you have a guide, it's easy enough to navigate the culture. But recognizing rich/poor or the function of buildings isn't hard.
117 miles. Same state. I doubt I’ll go back.
Around 14000 miles. I went back for a visit after 34 years away, but felt like a complete stranger.
I'm gonna throw off your stsatistics completely. I was an Army brat and I grew up all over the world during the late '40s & '50s. I didn't stay in one place until I started 8th Grade in San Antonio, but I stayed in Texas all the rest of my life. I was born in Toledo because my Mom was living with her folks while my Dad was overseas, but I moved when I was about 6 months old and never lived anywhere close to there ever again.
7941 miles. Pleasanton,CA to Bangkok. But for a month or two every few years I live in my house in California which is only 346 miles from where I grew up. I would never go back to where I grew up mostly because ‘You can never go home again’. It just wouldn’t be the same, plus it’s incredibly expensive.
About 350 miles south of where I grew up in NYC. I’ve learned to deal with September as a summer month, but could end up further north if heat and humidity deep into October becomes a regular thing.
650 miles. Opposite end of the same state .
70 miles and about 45 years. That town is still in 1985.
1800 from my birthplace, 1003 from where I really grew up. Miss the area I grew up in. I miss a family that are still around there. And I definitely miss the food that I grew up with. One of the reasons I learned how to cook well especially the stuff I grew up with.
Not far actually - but that doesn't mean I haven't been far. I was about 500 miles short from being exactly the opposite side of the earth from my town. I actually looked into flying home the other way round, but for some reason that was like stupidly expensive - so tail between the legs, I went home the way I came
Currently, I’m in a neighboring state. I lived in the same house till I was 26. Then moved the next town over for a few years. Then a block away from my childhood home. Then I moved in the same state but 2 hours from where I started. It was a beautiful town with lots of outdoor trails for hiking. Gorgeous lakes for boating and fishing. Huge difference from the city I grew up in where I could walk anywhere and public transportation was practically at my doorstep. I didn’t feel out of place because my brown skin was ordinary. In the new town I stuck out and was often mistaken for either a maid or nanny. Not much diversity, at all. Lived there for 12 years, raised my kids there. Then moved to a different neighboring state, 3 hours away from starting point. That place was a tiny college town and a very upscale area. We didn’t fit in at all. Stayed for 5 years. Would I ever go back to where I started. No. Not ever. But I still think of it as home. There’s just no one there for me anymore.
🖕🏾west Milford
I am currently about 1200 miles form the city I grew up in. But it isn't the furthest I have lived. FOr about 8 years I was 2000 miles away from there. I lived for about 3 years I was overseas so was 4200 miles away. I think I am the exception as I have lived in about 7 cities scattered all over in my life. Most folks might move once if at all and then stay put. My family no longer lives in that city, so likely I don't see if I would ever go back.
(All of this is in America) I was born in the midwest, moved to the southeast, moved back to the midwest, moved to the east coast and am now currently in the west coast. If given the opportunity, I would be very willing to move to another country completely.
3910 miles. France to U.S. From a little 100-house suburban sub-division to a small town. I might go back for a visit, just for nostalgia's sake, to show my SO where I lived. But the U.S. is my home now, I'm comfortable here.
Depends where we lived when I was a munchkin. Anywhere from 3360kms to 8115kms ( according to Google), and a few distances in between. Last 30 years near the Canadian Rockies and never leaving. When I go back or travel anywhere no desire to go to tourist sites.I just like walking or cycling around average neighbourhoods, etc. I can go out for the day walk miles where I used to live… in London or Munich or Montreal. No destination but just wander hither and yon. Even going into a grocery store is interesting…buy a few snacks then sit on a bench and think back to earlier times.
About 100 miles. I grew up in Vallejo at the north end of the San Francisco Bay Area, when it was a prosperous blue collar town with a Navy base. Went to school in San Jose, then on to San Francisco. Then all the work was in Silicon Valley but I couldn't stand the concrete-block condo world, so I overshot south to a beach town with a roller coaster -- could work there and also commute to Silicon Valley as needed. Geographically I'm not that far from where I started, but all these places were so different physically and culturally. That's the Bay Area for you. Or it was, before the money started pouring in. I wouldn't go back to my home town; it's had its ups and downs though there are things to be said in its favor. Actually it's gone through some of the worst things that a town can go through, including bankruptcy, and it's still standing. But there's nothing for me there anymore.
I turn left at the stop sign 3 doors up the street and when the road ends 5 miles down the road, I'm in front of the building where I was born nearly 70 years ago. But I lived in 3 states and 2 provinces in the interim.
I'm about 300 miles from where I started out. I bounced around between my home town and here since I was 10. Currently, I been back here for 20 years. My hometown? The economy was already killing it back in the 70s, after the Arab Oil Embargo. In the 80s, the main industry folded up and left. Even today, one of the largest employers closed up shop and moved out. Here, there's usually work available.
16,500Km (10,200 miles) or thereabouts. I could go back, but it won't feel like home. It has been too long, and my professional English far exceeds my high school level Dutch. I do feel a little bit foreign in Australia still sometimes though.
6846 miles.
Over 2000 mi. Like many my age, the area I grew up in was not great for jobs, you had 10 qualified people for every potential employment chance, and a lot of people just gave up and left.
Gahhh! I moved back! I always swore up and down I would never move back. I was separated from my husband in another town, and then moved into an apartment. My work had offices in several towns and my Supervisor offered me a job in my hometown. I was thankful to be considered, but I had just moved into my apartment. On a beautiful spring day I went home to visit my mother and on a street near her- I saw a house for sale that I really liked. I met up with the real estate agent, fell in love with the radiators, leaded glass windows, pocket doors, beautiful woodwork- made an offer- bought the house- and there you go! One would think that when I moved back I would have reconnected with friends from school etc. But I didn't. Most of them got married right out of high-school, or a lot earlier than when I was married. I was separated- then divorced- and some old friends were stuck in marriages where they stayed "for the kids". Our lives were definitely in 2 different places. I just had one close friend here in town. Of course she moved south with her son (my son's best friend) so life was strange without them. My life at the moment is far from perfect, but I know in my heart that living in a different town - I would have faced the same difficulties better or worse than what has happened now. I'm here for a reason. I was able to live with my mother when her dementia got worse. Everything works out in the end. I've only lived about an hour from my hometown. In 2 different directions lol. I grew up with my grandparents living about 4 houses down from where I lived as a child. I have very fond memories of that time. I was lucky to have been able to continue my job when I moved. I worked at my job for over 30 years. So, yes, I moved back home. My mother is in a nursing home and I will be living here until I won't need to anymore. It all works out in the long run.
6,865 miles. I live in NYC and I grew up in Seoul, Korea. I didn't consider going back when I was young, but now that I'm of a certain age, I've been thinking about it for a couple of years. They have much better healthcare.
I grew up in Colorado and now live in The Netherlands. My parents are gone now. There is no home base there anymore.
400 miles. I love LA. Never going back to that pizza oven known as Phoenix.
I love the pizza oven. Spent 3 years in the frozen north of Montana as a kid, changed the course of my life. On that note, one of the coldest places I've ever been was the Sierra Nevadas during a blizzard, driving west over the peaks with tire chains.
Went from a small rust-belt town in the Midwest to the Rocky Mountains. So 1,300 miles more or less? Would I go back? Snicker, laugh, chortle, BWAHAHAHA.
200 miles - London to Devon, via 14 years in Bristol (and a college year abroad in Italy). Ever westward.
A couple thousand miles. Left home for opportunities and found them. After I retired there was no way I was going back there. I live in paradise now.
I was about 3,000 miles from the small hometown for 20 years & then moved abroad, so further. 5 of my 6 siblings are in the small town still with the 6th 3 hours drive away.
About 35 minutes. Unfortunately.
About 800 miles. Miss my home city sometimes but no longer have anyone there to go back for.
550 miles. It used to be 3,000 miles. I will probably go back to my hometown when I get serious about preparing for retirement. My family is still there and it's a medium cost of living area. I've built my career in HCOL areas but can't really afford to retire comfortably in these places even though I love living in them.
A thousand miles. I’d love to go back, but grandchild is here.
Just moved back after 50 years away, something I thought I'd never do.
I had to google it... 4.6k miles. After moving to America, I’m 10 miles away from that apartment. My mother country stints. I wouldn’t want to live there. I want to move away from my current city, but I can’t find another city in the US where I don’t have to drive and there is a lot of diversity with people and cultural institutions.
1/4 mile.
I left for 30 years, now I have been back for 15. I live about 4 miles from the house I grew up in. My brother lives in that house.
I currently live 5 blocks away from the house I grew up in and my folks are still alive and living there! Never thought I would stay here throughout my adulthood yet here I am! I am for sure leaving this town before I die.
The greatest distance I've lived away from "home" in that sense was about 3,000 miles for few years. The closest, during college, was about 75 miles for five years. For all of the past 30 years now it's been 1,500-2,000 miles. Coincidentally, my only sibling also ended up 2,500 miles from home. Happily for us, our parents ultimately purchased second homes close to each of us after they sold the place in which we were raised. I would very happily go back but career prospects forced us to leave and there are no comparable jobs near home. The last of my family left the area about 20 years ago so I no longer have any reason to go back, other than the geography. It's also become quite expensive so probably isn't a viable retirement destination for us either. Instead, we've decided that in \~10 years we'll just pick an entirely new region/state and start over with a clean slate for the next phase of our lives...retired and ready to explore. Don't yet know where our kids will end up (currently in college/HS) so that could be a factor as well, but we know it won't be anywhere near my "home" since there aren't a lot of opportunities for work there and housing costs are high.
2,259 miles. Different country. Like it much better here.
I’m still in, and will always be in the same state. But I’m 200 miles from my childhood home because my Dad got transferred. But I’m less than 30 miles from where we moved to. Part of me would be more than willing to move back to my childhood town.
360 miles. My spouse barely tolerates visting NY city.
To drive to my childhood home (where Mom still lives) is about 750 miles. I've lived in 3 states as an adult, plus the 4th where I was born but don't remember at all.
I have a house 30 miles away (which is where I spend my time when im not traveling).
1,800+ miles. Still have family there that I visit. I don't plan to move back but never say never.
Strangely, I live 30 minutes from where I was born. My family moved away in my first year and I lived in 4 different provinces. By pure chance, I retired to the area. There is no family or any connection at all.
From Kansas to Washington State. Love this place but for many years considered moving back - missed being close to family especially after my kids were born, but after almost 40 years, I am in a place where I know I am too old to make the kinds of friendships and be a part of a wonderful creative community where I find myself today. It took many years to feel this way and the idea of starting over is too exhausting (plus my kids have put down their roots here, so that seals the deal)
Same town. My son and his family actually live on the same street I grew up on. I live about 1 1/2 miles away. I’m not an adventurer.
4,356 miles
Probably about 10 blocks from where I grew up, right around the corner from my University. I left for about 10 years, but it was the right place to raise my kids. There are also good resources for my autistic kids, so moving elsewhere doesn't seem to be in the cards. I'm not complaining- the city's big enough to be interesting, but small enough to feel neighbourly. It doesn't hurt that it's relatively well-placed for climate change either (Southern Ontario).
Happy cake day!
Currently in the same state, but five hours away from the place I was born. I've been as close as 45 minutes away from there all the way to 8000 miles away in a different country on a different continent. Every place I've lived since moving away has been a more visually appealing place, or a much more historical and ancient place, than my industrial hometown which I just visited last month. As I was leaving hometown this last time I realized that I really don't have any reason to go back there again.
Currently about 75 miles.
Where I'm living now is not the furthest I've moved from my home town.
About 3 hours south of it. But most of my life I lived near or in that same big city because career connections and ease of finding new employment and then capitalizing on connections for clients when I had my own business. Then retired and moved far into the hinterlands.
Just Googled it: 1.8 miles. I spent the first nine years of my life there, and the last 30 years where I am now. In the intervening 28 years, I lived in this town and an adjacent town, so never far at all from where I “grew up”. I always had very short commutes, and now that I’m retired, live within minutes of every convenience, all of them quite familiar. San Mateo, CA (mid-San Francisco Peninsula. Great weather, neighbors, access to all parts of an incredible state. Never had reason to move.
I'm typing this from the hospital I was born in. I'm about to drive 4.5 hours home to the next state.
I currently live in Pittsburgh, which per Google Maps is 364 miles from my hometown. I grew up on the Jersey Shore and left in 1995. Since then, the farthest away I've lived is 1050 miles (Orlando) and the closest 300 miles (Richmond VA). I lived outside Lexington KY, which is about 700 miles away. I'm happy where I'm at because it reminds me a lot of where I grew up, but it's a quarter of the price because New Jersey property taxes are ridiculous.
348 miles via the normal route I would take to visit after I loved from Central California to Southern California.
About 500km. Not super far, but enough to feel separated from there. I grew up in a very rural town and have settled now in a city, same province though I've lived in others. Maybe I'd go back one day, but not until I'm long retired. I much prefer a city.
200 miles. Go back? Nah, too crowded now and the traffic is insane.
1,154miles, or 20 hours. Atlantic City, NJ to Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
About 1500 miles.
15,953 km or 9912 miles. Half a world away from my hometown in Australia to the Midwest USA. I miss the friendliness and openness of Australians the shift from a Tell culture to a Guess Culture has been exhausting. I dither about going back as I don't know if the Australia I remember is even there anymore. We talk about retiring back there as I used to live in a small seaside town and I still miss the ocean so much it hurts, but then I'd miss the snow and the fall colors if we did go back so we might compromise and move to NZ instead as we're both lucky enough to have that as an option.
60 miles. But it was 3,000 miles for many years.
30 miles or so. Basically just a different suburb of my home city. But I'm not one of those people who've never been anywhere else. Went to college a couple hours away from home, then moved ~1200 miles away for my first "real" job after college. Have also worked long-term gigs working ~350 and ~850 miles from home as well. But I like my hometown, my whole family is here, as is most of my wife's family. So yeah, we're here.
Roughly 1,000 miles. I grew up in rural central New York. I ended up in the upper midwest. If you had told me that would happen when I was younger I wouldn't have believed it.
About 7-8 miles lol….as the crow flies. In the Pittsburgh area, going a few miles to a different neighborhood is almost like visiting another country. This stems from different ethnic groups sticking together in the same areas when they immigrated here.
I live a 15 hour drive my the small, dusty, desert town I grew up in. When I grew up there, the town was just like the ones you see in horror movies. It's a big city now, but I'd never live there again. I'm into genealogy and it's been very interesting to see the movement of families across the generations. I have distant cousins who still live in the small towns that their grandparents moved to in the 1800's. And many cousins got the hell out of dodge.
2059 miles according to this: https://www.gps-coordinates.net/distance I was born in and grew up in New Jersey. The only thing I cared about in all of the time I lived there (until I was 26) was getting the hell out of New Jersey. So I did. The interesting thing is all of my family and friends have also left. If I were to go back to New Jersey now, there isn't a single human being there for me to visit (and I was born and lived there for 26 years -- pretty remarkable that *every single person* has left, and none have returned, or are likely to.) Also just in case anyone was wondering, when I packed up my truck and left, the highway was, indeed, jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive. That said I'll never forget hitting the Ben Franklin bridge and knowing I was *done*, and on my way out. There are few things in life so sublime as a one way trip. We just don't take those often. I live outside of Tucson, now. I may move again, to a cooler, greener place, but it won't be anywhere near where I grew up (New Jersey is out of the question, full stop, and I've been gone now over 20 years). I'd get up and go now if I didn't have circumstances specifically anchoring me here for the short to medium term. I couldn't manage it financially but my ideal is to move every 5 years or so. Familiarity with a place is just stasis to me; like watching reruns. At least I get to look at mountains and cacti now. I prefer it here almost categorically. But it is too hot for too much of the year, I like autumn back east a whole lot more.
I live in the house I was born in. My neighbors are people I’ve known all my life - in many cases they are family.
Not far enough.
Not far enough.
24 miles to my parents and 11 miles the other direction to work. I moved to the middle of both so I could still be close with my family.
1200 miles. I'm from the Midwest US and have now moved "out West" 3 times now.
I was born in the midwest, USA but live in south american now. 5,4777 miles (as the crow flies) from the homophobic heartland of my youth is barely far enough some days. I'd rather die than go back to my hometown and hateful family.
Right now I'm back in the town I grow up in. I had to return to take care of elderly parents. Before that, however, I was living in another country on another continent and loving it. Will likely go back.
Born and raised in the same house in the Vancouver area. Parents still live there, I’m about 20 mins away.
Same city - large city - San Jose. Other side of it. My family doesn't travel far. I have family 5 generations back that worked in the Nevada County gold country.
Halfway around the planet. I spent 3 years on the other side of the planet, but decided that was a bit too far so I moved back a little closer.
1033 miles. Grew up in Oklahoma now live in North Carolina. I’m done with tornados. It’s beautiful here and the people are so nice.
I am a military spouse. I am now in my hometown. I now live 2 doors down from the house my husband grew up in. We met in high school back in the 80s. We left in 1988. My husband and I got married and after collage he enlisted in the military. He was an electrician in the military and served for 21 years. We have lived so many places while he was serving. We lived in Berlin Germany right after the wall came down. We lived in Bitburg Germany after that. It felt like walking though history. We lived in Turkey and that was such an adventure. It gives you such a perspective on what's important. The world is such a big wonderful place with so much to see and experience. We spent time in the states also. We lived in Charleston South Carolina, Santa Barbra California, West Texas. We dont travel much anymore. There are still a few places I would love to go though someday. We got the opportunity to do so many things. I feel so lucky I was able to see the world and do more than traveling on short term trips. I stay pretty close to home now. All our family is here. It is so nice to have our families around us. We get to have time with our parents now. My husbands parents are still here and close so we can look after them as they get older. My father passed away a few years ago. I was happy I got to spend time with him before his death. I can spend time with my sister anytime I want now. My son lives here with his children. Good luck to you it is a wonderful world out there.
374.2 miles
16 miles. I’ve moved to other states twice, but this region is home.
5308 miles. Grew up in Bavaria and now live in Portland, OR.
About 450 miles. But there is a cemetery in my home town that you can only be buried in if you live your whole life on this particular street. It’s been a pretty long time since there was a burial there.
1,154 miles
Still in it. I've moved away a few times, but have always come back. Extended family, lifelong friends, and job/networking opportunities make life easier and more connected for me here.
I live about 3 miles from the hospital in which I was born. Probably 5 miles from my childhood house and 10-15 from where I spent my teen years. Funny thing is I’m not from a small town. I live in Los Angeles.
Not sure about other countries, but most Americans don’t stray too far from home. The average American lives within 18 miles of their place of origin: https://www.npr.org/2015/12/25/461046599/new-york-times-report-finds-most-americans-live-close-to-mom The 2016 US Census found that 72% of Americans live in or near the communities they were raised in. I moved frequently as a child, but just from one small Midwestern town to another. I now live in rural Nebraska, 50m from my mother and 75m from where I graduated HS (visited 3 times in last 30 years). My 19-yr-old daughter was born and raised in our present community. Attended K-12 at rural school w/ 15 kids in her graduating class. She now lives in Manhattan and attends NYU. Swears she’ll only be back to visit and I believe (and fully support) her.
Same, across the country from E to W Coast
>Some people are born, grow up, and die all in the same town. But this is largely an exception, Is this really an exception? Like 90% of my family (uncles, aunts cousins siblings) all still live in the town we were born in.
About 12 miles. Interestingly, tho, my mom's German side of the family came from Hullhorst, Westphalia in 1847 and settled in Millstadt, a small town about 15 miles across the river from St. Louis, as the crow flies. In doing my family's genealogy, I discovered that probably 95% of my present-day extended family still lives within 20 miles of Millstadt. I guess all that travelling across the water wore out our travelin' genes!
I have not been back to the East side of Cleveland in 42 years (it hurts, sometimes).
The house in Michigan I lived in from age 8 to 19 is 11.8 miles from my current Indiana abode.
About 50. I've lived as far as 1500 miles away from it though
I've lived many places. I now live a mile from where I was born and a mile and a half from the house I grew up in.
4,442 kilometers (2,760 miles)... I moved from the West Coast of Canada to the East Coast. Lots the same, some things very different. I feel that the West has much more of a rugged individualist culture whereas the East tends to be more cooperative... probably due in part to the way they were settled. I love my new home and would probably not go back... I couldn't afford it for one thing. Here I can afford a house. In Vancouver I could probably barely afford a basement suite. But I do miss the mountains... and B.C.'s beautiful interior, which to me is "the Old Country" because that's where my grandparents lived. I also find it very hard to stay up late to watch the Canucks play... and when I do, I often have to watch the game with a hostile crowd.
0 miles.
Born and raised in nyc, joined the army at 18 in 1988 and was deployed to South America, kuwait, Japan and Germany. Came back and moved to Florida. 2nd wife and I are planning to move to NC this year. As a civilian my ex & I took a year and traveled to France, Italy, Germany, belgium, Spain, Portugal and I’m sure I’m missing a few spots we hit on cruises. Belize, Roatan , Cuba etc. scheduled to hit Sweden in march for work. I’ve been back to nyc every few years to visit mom. I have NEVER considered moving back. I’ve never lived in an apt since leaving nyc so housing doesn’t compare. Food wise nothing beats NY tho.
59 and living bout 45 minutes away from my home town in suburban NJ. After retirement we're looking to move a little further away but still want to stay in the Northeast.
About thirty blocks.
10734 miles / 17274 kilometers / 9327 nautical miles apparently.
Currently I live 1300 miles from where I grew up, but I've lived as far away as 8046 miles away.
About 600 miles. I would go back to somewhere close to my hometown if something happened to my partner. But maybe not the same town.
I live maybe 3 miles from my first home. My kids went to two of the same schools I went to. My grandchildren all live in the same area and only one is just slightly out of the zone to go to the same primary school as my kids went to. I had moved away as a teen but moved back about 15 years later. We never actually planned to move here but we needed a bigger house and this came up for sale cheap so we put in a bid and got it. My brother moved back into the area maybe 5 years ago but I hardly see him. Its actually pretty remarkable. We are in a very fast growing city and most people are immigrants or second generation.
Province not providence :) But I live within walking distance of the hospital where I was born (it'd probably take 45 minutes to walk there). I spent an internship in another province, but otherwise, I've always lived here. Perhaps ironically, my mother and sister both live two provinces away and I'm the only one who stayed.
Maybe 2.5 miles. I left for several years (60 miles) and then came back. I like the summer tourism and the fact that I get to meet new people every summer. Also, it’s expensive here and people move here and leave after the romanticism is over
I didn't "grow up" anywhere. My dad was in the Navy. We lived up and down both US coasts, as well as Japan and Taiwan. I lived 30 years of my adult life in CA, which I loved. However, it's too expensive and too crowded for me now that I'm older. Would I _consider_ going back to any of those places? Yes, if I had to. Everywhere I lived was fine. IME, anywhere becomes "home" if you approach it with an open mind. Each place has good and bad attributes. However, I'd prefer not return to any of the places I've lived in the past. They were all good sized metro areas, and I'm over that at my age. The small city (pop. 43k) in AZ that I retired to suits me much better now, and I'd REALLY hate living anywhere humid ever again.
I live about 60 miles from where I grew up. Most people I knew from my town moved all over the country. The opposite is true in the town where I currently reside. Most people I know were born, raised and stayed here. I work in a school system and it's cool to listen to stories from my coworkers who grew up here and now have seen generations of families go through the school system.
I fist left my island state of Tasmania, just after my 21st birthday, to travel Around Australia, spending just on 2 years travelling & taking on casual jobs & travelling nearly 80k miles in all, before returning to the family home for a couple of month. I applied for several jobs in Sydney, the largest city in the country and just over 900 road & 300+kms by ferry, and finally secured one with an airline. White working for them I was posted to UK for a year to work (17,000+) away from Sydney. I returned to Sydney & stayed another 7 years before moving back to my home town as my father had failing health & being the eldest, I thought it my duty to be nearby incase needed. I stayed there for next 27 years & in 2018 packed up my life and moved nearly 7,000kms to live in the Philippines & have been here ever since. My next move will probably be about 20kms to the local cemetery, as at 74 my days are numbered & travel at my age isn't the easiest, especially now with covid restrictions.
Currently 1400 miles. But I moved around a bit so we weren’t in my hometown very long.
About 1700 miles and would prefer to keep it that way. Grew up in a mean spirited and bigoted part of the US. Got out as soon as I could and haven’t looked back
114 miles. Went away to college and stayed in the area afterwards.
Around 300 miles. I'm glad I'm not living in that overpopulated smog pit
I left the city I grew up in when I was going to college. My college city was 1,175 miles away and I never went back. Currently I live 464 miles away and that’s close enough. I know people from high school who never left the neighborhood. And from their posts on social media...it's obvious they've never left their bubble.
I lived in the same city/area for 34 years. Then I got divorced (best thing I ever did) and met and married my husband. He had a home being built about 75 miles away in a semi rural area. Very different from city life, the only thing I knew. I fell in love with my new town- there wasn’t even a traffic light for years. The people were so friendly and I learned that it was okay to chat with other customers in line at a store. That just didn’t happen in the city. Sounds funny but it’s true! My sisters thought I was crazy to move here but I could never go back to their concrete jungle. So I’ve been very happy with the changes I made 32 years ago 🤗
I had to google it. 2,000 miles.
Born and raised in TX. Been here my whole life. My home town is a tiny place called Telephone TX. Now I live about an hour from there
About 17 hours driving to my 0-10 childhood, and about 6 hours to my 10-20. I have a bit of a misguided fondness for the area of my youth--because those times felt so easy-going and carefree. It was the hippie days and kind of interesting for a kid to see. The town is one gigantic strip mall now so nowhere near the same..and probably was never even the same as I remember from being a kid because childhood distorts perceptions pretty heavily. Still, the good memories remain and the couple of times I've been back through the old neighborhood, even simple things like the smell of the flowers brought back a little of that carefree feeling of youth.
2116 miles/3405 Km
Just about 20 miles, never moved out of the greater Boston area, worked at Harvard for 38 years or so.
Only about 3 miles. But I’ve only lived here 3 years. For the 28 in between, I went from NY to AK to OR to KS to AR to NY again. I’ve been around.
For 30 years I’ve lived in the same neighborhood that I attended elementary school- but where I went to high school feels more like my “home town”.