Being too attached to your local area.

LadyLucinda · 03-05-2014 11:41PM #1

I am not the most well traveled person out there but at the same time I do know that it will not be the end of the world if I don't end up settling down in my local village. The thing is that I have a group of friends whose lives revolve around working, living, drinking and most importantly playing GAA with the local team. They could easily work at what they are working at here in another country but the idea wouldn't even enter their heads. They drink in the same pubs every weekend and the same night club for years.

I am thinking about heading off to Australia or New Zeland soon but I wouldn't even bother asking them to come with me. I may not be so smart when I am abroad but I do think that if I do head off that I wouldn't miss the place too much, if at all. I would be very surprised if any of them even left the province to work and would expect them all to be at home for the rest of their lives. I actually find this quite sad.

Is this normal?

Legs.Eleven · 03-05-2014 11:45PM

Perfectly normal. Some people are home birds, some aren't. Nothing sad about it in the slightest.

wazky · 03-05-2014 11:46PM

Is it not natural to want to spread your seed around?, otherwise we would be all inbred.

umop.episdn · 03-05-2014 11:49PM

wazky wrote: »

Is it not natural to want to spread your seed around?, otherwise we would be all inbred.

Technically we are all a little inbred, we're all 14th cousins or better in Europe I believe

orangesoda · 03-05-2014 11:51PM

I quit playing the gaelic football when I was a teen, I'm glad I did as I had a very limited mind set, I viewed the next parish as foreign and I hated leaving the area.
I have no trouble living in other countries but I remain proud of my native home.

p.s. everyone in my area are cousins, my friend actually had intercourse with his 3rd cousin

Merkin · 03-05-2014 11:52PM

I'd find those levels of parochialism boring in the extreme but each to their own.

And asking is it 'normal' is pretty subjective, whatever makes people happy is cool as long as they're not harming anyone

Nonoperational · 03-05-2014 11:53PM

If they're happy, then it's not for anyone else to judge. I know what you're saying, but each to their own.

Duckworth_Luas · 03-05-2014 11:54PM

When I was a teenager I left my home town, it was the happiest day of my life.

Some years later it was obvious that I'd never live in my home town again. It was the saddest day of my life.

umop.episdn · 03-05-2014 11:56PM

Duckworth_Luas wrote: »

When I was a teenager I left my home town, it was the happiest day of my life.

Some years later it was obvious that I'd never live in my home town again. It was the saddest day of my life.

Brigadoon?

Duckworth_Luas · 03-05-2014 11:57PM

umop.episdn wrote: »

Brigadoon?

Chernobyl

Adamantium · 03-05-2014 11:58PM

Video seems approriate to your situation OP.

"I'm afraid of dying in this place"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXxw-zXRqOs

Rasheed · 04-05-2014 12:01AM

I'm a self confessed home bird. Even when I was younger and had the chance to travel I didn't see the appeal. I'm still living in the same area I grew up in, mixing with the sane people and a lot of the social life revolves around the football club.

Yeah I get slagged for it but that's just me and I don't really care. I like where I live, I like being close to my extended family and friends. Some want to travel, best of luck & bring me back a stick of rock, but I'm happy toddling along in my little parish.

LadyLucinda · 04-05-2014 12:10AM

Nothing wrong with what they are doing but I just think there is a bit more to life that playing football and drinking. the more you can drink the cooler you are as well. and you have to make sure that facebook and snapchat knows about how often you drink as well

Gongoozler · 04-05-2014 12:12AM

Can't help but think the same as you op, the majority that I went to school with still hang around the same pubs, go to the same matches, talk to the same people as they did 15 / 20 years ago, I can't help but find it sad. I expect its a discomfort with trying new things.

04-05-2014 12:21AM

Being a home bird is fine, as long as it's because you love home and choose it above elsewhere. It's the home birds who view everything outside their area with suspicion that tend to be the ones with the narrow world view and the narrow minds to match.

Legs.Eleven · 04-05-2014 12:25AM

LadyLucinda wrote: »

Nothing wrong with what they are doing but I just think there is a bit more to life that playing football and drinking. the more you can drink the cooler you are as well. and you have to make sure that facebook and snapchat knows about how often you drink as well

Many people emigrate and lead lives very much like they did in their hometown, which is also grand. I think there's a bit of a myth that when you emigrate, you automatically lead an exciting, adventurous lives when it's often the case that you get settled somewhere, get a routine and end up doing the stuff you did before but somewhere different.

The Backwards Man · 04-05-2014 12:28AM

The whole world is my home.

LadyLucinda · 04-05-2014 12:29AM

Oh I know that well but there is no harm in giving it a go. The village isn't going to run away

04-05-2014 12:44AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

The whole world is my home.

He's got the whole world... in his hands.

The Backwards Man · 04-05-2014 01:01AM

Candie wrote: »

He's got the whole world... in his hands.

Oh, I'm not God.

It's a mistake people often make though.:pac:

shruikan2553 · 04-05-2014 01:20AM

Im not even finished college left so there is still plenty of time but in my experience those who stayed home have done absolutely nothing. Their lives are no different than when they were doing their leaving cert. They go out to the same pubs with the same people every weekend. The biggest thing they might have managed is having a child. There are those who prefer to stay nearby but at least they have tried something new and just like the location.

04-05-2014 01:45AM

shruikan2553 wrote: »

Im not even finished college left so there is still plenty of time but in my experience those who stayed home have done absolutely nothing. Their lives are no different than when they were doing their leaving cert. They go out to the same pubs with the same people every weekend. The biggest thing they might have managed is having a child. There are those who prefer to stay nearby but at least they have tried something new and just like the location.

Depends what you want from live I guess, if someone is happy with such a life well good for them.

J_E · 04-05-2014 02:02AM

I live in Portlaoise. Staying here for the rest of my life isn't an option.

Lady Spangles · 04-05-2014 02:16AM

LadyLucinda wrote: »

I am not the most well traveled person out there but at the same time I do know that it will not be the end of the world if I don't end up settling down in my local village. The thing is that I have a group of friends whose lives revolve around working, living, drinking and most importantly playing GAA with the local team. They could easily work at what they are working at here in another country but the idea wouldn't even enter their heads. They drink in the same pubs every weekend and the same night club for years.

I am thinking about heading off to Australia or New Zeland soon but I wouldn't even bother asking them to come with me. I may not be so smart when I am abroad but I do think that if I do head off that I wouldn't miss the place too much, if at all. I would be very surprised if any of them even left the province to work and would expect them all to be at home for the rest of their lives. I actually find this quite sad.

Is this normal?

There's nothing wrong at all with being a home bird. I wanted to leave the place I grew up in because there were very few jobs, fewer prospects and the place (Liverpool) seemed to be on the slide in general. But really, just wanted to see other places and cultures etc.

If you can imagine yourself in fifty or sixty years time, growing old and never having been anywhere, do you think you will regret it? As the old adage says, it's best to regret something you did than something you didn't.

holystungun9 · 04-05-2014 09:03AM

Cydoniac wrote: »

I live in Portlaoise. Staying here for the rest of my life isn't an option.

Jezus! Lads, can we do some sort of sponsored walk or something to at least get him a bus fare and a few nights in a hostel. Leave no man behind!

Graces7 · 04-05-2014 09:28AM

interesting variations. i am far far from where i grew up and will never return there. home is where i am. although happier where i am just now than anywhere else.

but ageing does that; different priorities and needs.

i think it is good to leave the nest for a while. we had vso for that although that was not for me. if you work overseas a while you can enrich the life of your home town. seen that in several folk.

but the inbreeding here! try valentia island for lookalikes, or the photos of the blaskets.

shalalala · 04-05-2014 09:51AM

I left my home town at 16 and now Dublin is my home. I love to travel and see new things but i am a home bird in that i am very close to my mam and i like spending time at home with my partner. I have a friend that has the same friends now that she did when she was 4 and that really does not compute with me. People change all the time and still liking all of them after that many years? I just don't get it

Daveysil15 · 04-05-2014 09:54AM

LadyLucinda wrote: »

Nothing wrong with what they are doing but I just think there is a bit more to life that playing football and drinking. the more you can drink the cooler you are as well. and you have to make sure that facebook and snapchat knows about how often you drink as well

That's more of a reflection on our drinking culture than been a homebird though. And you'll see that in a lot of places. My cousin recently came back from Australia and he said most of the Irish he met there just watched football and got pissed at the weekends. Kind of the same thing they were doing at home but in a different country. As legs said you can move abroad and just settle into a routine.

Rasheed · 04-05-2014 09:55AM

shalalala wrote: »

I have a friend that has the same friends now that she did when she was 4 and that really does not compute with me. People change all the time and still liking all of them after that many years? I just don't get it

Of my three best friends, I've known one since I was 4, one since 13 and one since college. The girls I've know since four has changed the least of them all!

Puzzle35 · 04-05-2014 09:56AM

umop.episdn wrote: »

Technically we are all a little inbred, we're all 14th cousins or better in Europe I believe

Gosh.......we Irish must be quite a bit less diluted than that again...

beach_walker · 04-05-2014 10:05AM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

The whole world is my home.

Not my place. Keep out of it.

Being too attached to your local area.

Comments