Okay so I have seen enough threads on here about looking to lay down roots / homesickness etc to know I am not being completely unreasonable. However, in the absence of friends or family who can provide objective input - I thought I would share my dilemma.
Grew up in Yorkshire in a large, extended family. Left to go to Uni. Yorkshire’s had its heart stripped out in terms of loss of vast chunks of its native industry. This blasted my family to all ends of the Earth.
Have now lived in several places including abroad - never settled. Have not married yet or had kiddos (really want to).
Have lost x 3 grandparents now in close succession. Always thought I would end up loving near them and my darling grandparents would meet my offspring etc.
Am literally OCD lately on collecting stuff that reminds me of them/ what our family used to be like/ totally preoccupied with working out where on earth I can rebuild what was smashed apart all those years ago in the name of (I would say survival as it’s part of it but also a lot of Boomer over-ambition and Greed Is Good stuff from the 80s which drove some of our parents / aunts / uncles’ generations).
Just cannot figure out if there could even conceivably be enough opportunities left in Yorkshire / if I can possibly reconnect on the level I am dreaming of / know full well wouldn’t be the same. Would involve almost entirely new cast of characters so would involve starting again. Mostly just the culture and stone houses etc that would feel familiar. Dialect, laughing in pubs, (some thought not all) people being somewhat less materialistic and most common sensical / practical (apologies in advance to Southerners but Yorkshire had vaccinated its entire population before most other counties had bumbled through their clinically vulnerable and elders ;-) there’s a legacy there of mass-organisation that goes to levels of practically I have yet to witness down South).
And yet - I also love the South - but it’s extortionate and can’t afford much better than Assisted Buy or a Shoe Box down there.
Is anyone else feeling this way AND how did any of you resolve it? I see such a mix of experiences here including those who regret never leaving depressed areas and those who left the SE for better quality of life and now regret it. How to resolve this (and soon as don’t want to leave it too late for DC / marriage etc). Thanks in advance.