Breaking Free from Hometown Labels: Embrace Your Present, Rewrite Your Story

“You haven’t suffered enough to understand what someone else has gone through”

“You’re have nothing to complain about. Your life is perfect. Who are you going to help if they have suffered more than you have”

Whether you have heard this from someone else or you have said it to yourself. It can still hold you back. 

I was reading the Bible in Luke chapter 4. And Jesus mentions that “no prophet is accepted in his hometown”. 

And it reminded me of how we always hold onto where we came from rather than where we presently are or can be. Then believe that people in our hometown will accept the new version of ourselves while holding on to the version they have always known us to be. I am guilty of this. 

For years and years, I refused to accept that I am from California. I was constantly holding on to the fact that I was from New Jersey, which technically is true because I was born and raised there. But at the same time I never truly felt at home in California until I bought a house. 

I know, crazy right? 

At the same time I was holding on to who I was rather than who I am now. And the now is a whole different person. 

I let people continue the stories they had about me or sometimes I would hold on to the attitude that helped me get out of a situation I needed at that time. But I’m not that same person. 

I was that person because I had to be at that time. Who I am now is different. 

My life is different. My “suffering” may not have been extreme like others, but I was battling my own war silently than others did. 

I may have looked great on the outside but I was dying on the inside. Crying my eyes out in private. And not sharing what I was going through with others because I didn’t want to be a burden to them. Especially those who knew me for a long time. 

They wouldn’t understand or even really listen to what I was saying. They would only know the past me.

I know I hold onto a lot of things in New Jersey mainly due to the fact that:

• I have family there 
• My bestie is still there. 
• My memories are still there. 

But also I hold on to a lot of things that created angry teenager/20s me. 

• being in my sisters shadow 
• Being called her name and not my own 
• Having to say “I have a name” to every person and teacher that wouldn’t acknowledge I had one of my own 
• Being transferred to a different school in a different state and trying to figure out who I was out of that shadow 

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. 

Hometowns can create the most pivotal moments in your life. Whether positive or negative moments. But they also are only a chapter or two in your life. 

You can continue to be the way others perceive you or have known you to be and stay stagnant in your own growth. 

Or you can close that chapter and write a new one for your self. 

We were not born to be stagnant or to be told that we are not qualified to do what makes us happy especially when it helps others. We were meant to rise from the ashes and spread our wings and fly. 

My favorite saying is God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called. We are all meant to do something special in the world this we’ll never feel qualified to do. But through faith anything is possible. Through God anything is possible. 

So don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Stay the course, even when it gets hard. There is a big blessing on the other side waiting for you to claim it.

P.S. I write these for you. To help you with your struggles and if you need reassurance. But mostly I’m usually working things out myself and writing these is one of my favorite outlets to do it. By helping you I’m helping myself as well.