Cardiff. The capital of Wales. Moving to what is, and as a Welsh girl, this is the biggest and the best. In Cardiff, the parks are always full of people who have their lives together going on runs; the nightlife always thrives, even outside of the weekend; the shopping centre is a land of distraction and indulgence; the restaurants and bars line up for what feels like miles on end; and everywhere is always busy.
Compared to my hometown of Wrexham up in the north of Wales, it is a different story. When I think of home, I think of the streets that I know all too well. On Tuesday mornings when I walk to work, they’re quiet all over. Saturdays are the opposite, being first and foremost football days, where the whole town is watching eagerly and coming together to support the thing they love most. Of course, in a true Welsh fashion, everyone knows everyone.
Even though Wrexham is much more laid back than down here in the South, moving to university makes you miss the little things from home that you never really picked up on before, the things you would just take for granted. The small chats you have when you pass your old schoolmates on the high street asking what they’re up to now, passing your old schools and feeling the surge of memories flood back to you, and seeing the twentieth person this hour in a Wrexham shirt, feeling the true sense of community that can never be lost.
Maybe when I was young, I thought my hometown was boring, but I could not have been more wrong. Moving to university changed how I see home. When I think of Cardiff, it’s exciting and fun; but home is comforting and calm, a place surrounded by the friends and family who I miss, who watched me grow, and now watch from a distance as I build myself a career and get my degree. In a sense, my perspective of home has changed for the better. University life makes you realise how much you love both sides of the coin. Living in two places is special and I feel incredibly privileged to be in two places in Wales, the best country on Earth. In a true Welshie fashion, I say: Dwi’n caru Caerdydd a dwi’n caru Wrecsam.