It's Okay To Leave Your Family, Hometown & Its Memories Behind You
By: Joshua Lee Bryant
Tags: Growing Up, Family, Leaving, Moving, Life

Carrissa and I moved to Illinois a couple of months back because we became growingly frustrated with our families & how they had impacted our lives in Bristol,VA while we were living there. The painful memories from our time as children haunted us daily as we would constantly see places that reminded us of suppressed emotional traumatic events that had taken place when we were only kids. We were absolutely sick of hearing the lies and Manipulation from our parents almost daily while they wouldn't even try to acknowledge the ever lasting effects that we live with as a result of the past that we had came from.

Narcissism, sociopathy, gaslighting from others all aside, we no longer felt comfortable in our hometown. When we tried to vent or get advice from others: No one could seem to understand or relate to us on an emotional level because they hadn't gone through the things that we had.

In Illinois we began to blossom to our fullest potential as we finally found what it meant to feel happiness for the first time in our adult lives without distractions.

Happiness is attainable

Both of us was so damn Skippy about life, I applied for college, she was looking for what she wants to go to college for, she started doing Yoga & I started working out. We felt absolutely amazing.

While enjoying the uncontainable feelings of joy & happiness we soon began to realize how cold Illinois could get during winter as opposed to where we are originally from in Virginia. We both are simply not made for that cold of temperatures or windy of winds.lol

We knew we would have to relocate to a different place but we went back to visit our hometown one last time before relocating again to see how going back home would make us feel. To see if we indeed would feel the same emotionally as we originally did before we went to Illinois in the first place..

As we visited with people from our past, we were filled with negative emotions immediately, as we simply just saw them in person before even talking with them, but more so while they were talking and behaving as they always did when we lived near them. Nothing was different at all. Nothing changed but the distance between us and them.

We instantly regretted giving them another chance.

Seeing our families was a disaster for our mentalities. We knew in the very first day back in our hometown that we would just not be able to find happiness there.

It is hard to detach your memories from making you feel some type of way when they are all so negative.

It is also hard to forget the pain that someone has caused you when they are looking into your eyes.

So now we temporarily are living in Knoxville,TN. until we find a place near Richmond,VA. To move to for our “Forever Home” where we will someday start a family of our own and go back to school.

The more time that passes with us being in Knoxville = the better we are feeling, away from all of the negativity from our past life.

We all come from different walks of life. Some of us are from wealthy families, some of us come from poor ones. Some of us had a nightmare of a family (Manipulation, brainwashing, lies, emotional & or physical abuse, neglect, gas lighting), some of us had families that proved vital to our success. Some of us came from a group of people that follow a cultish type of religion & some of us came from a family of non believers.

America is a nation made up of diversity, that diversity is what makes our country amazing when such diverse people can come together to grow, help each other, & do great work for the world around us.

It needs to be said that it is okay to leave your hometown along with everything + everyone in it behind you as you search for a place to call home. If that is what you feel like needs to be done, then you should not feel any type of guilt or negativity for doing so.

Also, you should never allow anyone to make you feel bad for doing so!

If indeed you were destined to live in your hometown for your entire life then you'd had never wanted to leave it in the first place.

If the people that publically act like they love/care about you TRUELY did love and care about you.. They wouldn't hurt you.

no if, ands, or buts.

Even though this applies to everyone, I hope others that find themselves in the same position in life as I once found myself a few months ago, will understand what it is that I'm saying.

I hope you too, find happiness!

(Article originally posted on www.joshualeebryant.com )