What does "hometown" mean to you? (where to stay, living)
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Home is where your heart is, in my opinion. To call a place your hometown means that you like being associated with that place.
I was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, but moved to the US at the age of two (to Queens, New York City), and again to Maryland's DC suburbs at the age of seven. When asked where my hometown is, I'd certainly choose where I grew up in Maryland as opposed to Indonesia.
My "hometown" is the D.C. area and Maryland. I never resided anywhere else for any great length of time (even though I have property overseas). So, it's pretty simple.
I'm a military brat, and my family no longer has any connections to my parents' (and my) home state. I tend to claim the place I was the longest. So my typical answer is "I was born in Ohio, but I went to Jr. High and High School in Ft. Walton Beach, FL."
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
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Houston is my "hometown" and I didn't get there until I was 17. I grew up in a small town in East Texas, but was never content there. Houston was where I spent my adult years and made my life. It's where all my friends (including ones who are like family to me) still live. I went to college there. I owned three houses there with two wives. I built my career there. That's my hometown.
I consider it being where you mainly grew up. For myself I was born in Schenectady, New York, I lived there until I turned 7, moved to Virginia(Triangle/Woodrbidge area) for 7 years, then stayed in FL(Space Coast) for about 6 months then back to VA then straight to KY. All of high school and now college in Kentucky.
If someone asks me I usually just say I was born in NY but somewhat grew up in VA because in comparison I remember being the ages 6 and 7 in NY, not much of the years before that, but in Virginia I remember a full 7 years of being a kid and going school there, although it still doesn't necessarily feel like it's my hometown.
Hometown to me is where you most feel at home. My hometown is Beaverton, Oregon, whenever I go back I just feel right at home. I lived there for the first 9 years of my life but still went back a lot because of my family living there.
I think it is pretty obvious that for a great majority of people, "hometown" refers to the place where they graduated (or dropped out) of high school. Not everyone, of course, because not all people are cut out with the same cookie cutter, and army brats, for example, would not necessarily fit this definition. But if you grew up in a fairly stable household (like at least 90% of the general population), your home town is the town where you went to high school and fled the nest.
The first week after my move to Tennessee, I went to a supermarket in my town. In the area where the carts are, a man from the town newspaper sat at a table trying to get people to sign up to get the newspaper. I approached the table and we exchanged pleasantries and then he asked me the question, "Where are you from?" So I thought about it. Did he recognize my NY accent (where I spent most of my life)? Did he want to know which state (Maryland) I just moved from after 12 years? I didn't know how to answer. So I said something like "I just moved here to Tennessee this week. I lived in Maryland for 12 years before that. I was born in the Bronx, NY and lived on Long Island for most of my life except for 3 years when I lived in Washington, DC."
His response: "No, I meant which town did you come from today?" and then he rattled off the name of my town and 3 surrounding towns.
Try asking someone, "Where are you from?" to see how hard a question that is to answer.
I think it is pretty obvious that for a great majority of people, "hometown" refers to the place where they graduated (or dropped out) of high school. Not everyone, of course, because not all people are cut out with the same cookie cutter, and army brats, for example, would not necessarily fit this definition. But if you grew up in a fairly stable household (like at least 90% of the general population), your home town is the town where you went to high school and fled the nest.
I've spent my entire teenagehood in Orange County (I'm 21 now), and I don't feel at home here one bit. I feel more at home in the place where my family is and where I spent my childhood.
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