Having TWO Hometowns

My best guy-friend thinks I'm weird because I claim to have TWO hometowns. But I have no other way to explain it - I was born in a little steel town in SW Pennsylvania and lived there 8 years until my mom decided I should be raised a southern gal in a sleepy li'l town in SE Georgia (her hometown). Now, granted, a lot of factors played into the reason for our move. My dad had succumbed to cancer, my brothers were older and had their own lives (and were trying to tell my mom how to live hers) and my mom was depressed and really missed her family. Since my dad's and my brothers' childhoods were in PA, I feel connected to it. People there knew my dad and mom and brothers, I have relatives there, I feel somewhat at home when I am there. Yet I also feel the disconnect because I was raised down south, away from that side of my family, so my mom's and step-dad's family are the ones who know me best. However, when I'm down south, I feel the same disconnect - though I went to school with these people, I shared life experiences with them, they still have always seen me as a "yankee". So, I do have two hometowns - very different, yet very much the same. And I'm who I am because of them both, because of their histories and their effect on my family and their climates and their people. I hope they both have taught me to be tolerant and open-minded and kind and loyal and adaptable and independent, because that is the kind of towns they are, or at least try to be.