I left Lubbock at 18 and swore I\u2019d never come back.<\/p>\n
You couldn\u2019t have convinced me otherwise. I was certain there was something bigger, better, and less\u2026windy waiting for me somewhere else.<\/p>\n
And to be fair, there was.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the part nobody tells you: once you leave Lubbock, you start noticing things you never gave a second thought to while you were here.<\/p>\n
And somehow\u2026they follow you.<\/p>\n
I came back at 26 for a while. Left again.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019ve been back since 30.<\/p>\n
I’m 36 now.<\/p>\n
And yeah, things are actually going pretty alright.<\/p>\n
1. Life is pretty easy here.Photo by Anderson Schmig<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n You don’t realize how simple Lubbock life is until you’ve lived somewhere else. Rent doesn’t feel like a personal attack. You can live comfortably in a 2-bedroom apartment. Errands don’t require strategic planning and emotional preparation.<\/p>\n In larger cities, everything takes longer, costs more, and somehow seems to drain the life out of you faster. Lubbock life just kind of works.<\/p>\n 2. People Are Genuinely Nice (Not Just Polite)Photo by Brett Jordan<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n At some point after leaving, you realize that not everywhere else operates as kindly as Lubbock does. People make eye contact here and start up conversations with you in line. Someone will actually help you if something goes wrong. It’s not forced. It seems so natural here for people to lend a hand.<\/p>\n You don’t dare notice things like that until you’re gone.<\/p>\n 3. The Sky Is Bigger Than You Remember<\/p>\n This sounds totally dramatic until you leave West Texas. You come back and realize that our sunsets are just ridiculously beautiful. Everything feels so open.<\/p>\n 4. You Can Get Anywhere in 15 Minutes (And That Matters More Than You Think)Photo by toine G<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n Coming back to Lubbock almost feels like unlocking a cheat code or something.<\/p>\n Read More:\u00a0Phuket Thai Food To Open New Restaurant In South Lubbock<\/a><\/p>\n 5. The \u201cEveryone Knows Everyone\u201d Thing Isn\u2019t Always BadPhoto by Alex Gallegos<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n Growing up, it feels a little suffocating. I’m not going to lie. Ha.<\/p>\n But, now? I actually love running into friends from elementary school or old teachers when I’m out shopping. That familiarity starts to feel more like a connection than a limitation if you look at it the right way.<\/p>\n 6. There\u2019s a Weird Comfort in the PredictabilityPhoto by Vlad Tchompalov<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n Lubbock doesn’t try to reinvent itself every 5 minutes, and for that, we are all pretty lucky.<\/p>\n Chances are, your pals are still haunting your old favorite dives. Your taco spot still has that squeaky chair you always called dibs on. After living in places that constantly move the goal post, the stability of Lubbock hits hard.<\/p>\n 7. You Don\u2019t Have to Struggle Here to Feel Like You\u2019re Making ItPhoto by Alexander Grey<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n This one takes the longest to understand, but the sooner you grab hold of it, the better.<\/p>\n In a lot of places, there’s an unspoken rule that life is supposed to be incredibly hard if you’re “doing it right”, and Lubbock quietly ignores that BS.<\/p>\n You can afford your place, build a life, breathe a little, and be happy, right here. That’s more than enough for most of us.<\/p>\n Final Thoughts<\/p>\n I left Lubbock thinking I had outgrown it, but the truth is, I just hadn’t lived enough yet to understand how good I had it.\u00a0 I’ve been back for a while now, and who knows? Maybe I will leave again someday. But one thing is for certain: I won’t ever see this place the same way I did when I was 18.<\/p>\n Lubbock isn’t just a place you’re from. It’s a place that makes a lot more sense to you after you leave.<\/p>\n Keep scrolling for more Lubbock love in the galleries below…<\/p>\n Things Lubbock Actually Does Better Than Bigger Cities (No One Talks About This)<\/p>\n There’s more to Lubbock than dust and tumbleweeds. We actually do some things WAY better than the competition. <\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Chrissy<\/p>\n 58 Photos That Will Change The Way You Look at Lubbock<\/p>\n Lubbock gets joked about a lot \u2014 flat, dusty, windy \u2014 but when you see it from above, especially at sunset or night, it\u2019s actually pretty beautiful.<\/p>\n Gallery Credit: Chrissy Covington<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I left Lubbock at 18 and swore I\u2019d never come back. You couldn\u2019t have convinced me otherwise. I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-268236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}