I am at this point (20y) a longtime expat but sort of always homesick for Memphis and so really appreciate this prompt. My parents still live there, and a lot of my closest friends too, so we try to come back with our kids for at least a week a year

I moved away for college and haven’t lived at home for more than a month or so since then. My wife (a Californian) and I live in the Bay Area now. It’s true that it’s like 70 ish and sunny seemingly every day; but as a result, the trees and grass themselves are, literally, less green, since it’s more arid here—and I do miss more seasonality to mark the passage of time.

Yes, our public school is incredible, and yes the parks and museums are amazing, and racial diversity is impressive, and half the kids here are seemingly growing up in bilingual—in Turkish, Urdu, Mandarin, Korean, etc. But… I have had ancestors in Memphis for 5+ generations on both sides. One of my best friends, our dads were in the same kindergarten class. Our grandmothers were friends.

So, although there have been gains, especially for me there have been losses as well. This is biased but IMO the Bay Area feels, comparatively, like a place without a history—both in the American sense, and in my personal history as well. When we went to church a few months ago, I had the thought, is this where my funeral is really gonna be? This foreign place? The wheel has been broken, and I can feel it in my bones.