When I moved to Kingston back in 2013, a lot of people thought I wasn’t going to come back. I absolutely loved Kingston, I loved being 20 minutes from Waterloo but still only an hour from home. I didn’t have to bump into people that I went to school with, or be defined by mistakes I made. It sounds a bit silly but it was important to me at the time.

So if all was so rosy, why did I come back? Surely there would be more job opportunities in the city, I loved the place so it would make sense to stay and that was the plan. Then Ali and I started looking at rent and realised pretty quickly with graduate salaries we weren’t going to be able to live somewhere nice. Whereas, at home, we could get so much more space for our money.

We came back and I got a job locally and the thought of commuting to London filled me with dread, and that’s before I understood Fibro! With every year that passed, we got further and further from moving back to Kingston. Staying here I have family around for when Ali goes on tour and we have more of a chance of getting a house at some point.

For such a long time I felt like moving back to my home town made me a failure. I came back, did it really prove anything? I’ll probably end up having my children in the same hospital I was born in, I see people I’ve known since I was a child on a regular basis. Did this mean I haven’t lived?

And really, I don’t think so. I think I needed to move away to know who I was, to grow up and let go of what I was holding on to from when I was younger. Now I’m back, I couldn’t imagine moving again. I love having my family in the same town, that I have my friends and my life here. These things have become more important than ever for me since Ali started touring.

I’m interested, have you stayed in your home town? Did you move away? Let me know!