@RickiTarr Not really anyone telling me this, but the long-standing dramatic presumption of every single thing you do is remembered by an entire town and 30-40 years after high school everyone in town is "hip to your nonsense". Good people get lauded, bad people get shunned, and thats how everything is.
And 12-15 years after graduating high school, I returned to my former hometown and worked at the schools that I attended as a kid. Nobody cares.
You can take that as sad and cruel... Or take it how I did: incredibly liberating.
For those who are on the fence after high school and can't decide if staying local or going abroad is going to be worse... It's all going to change anyway. So be greedy and do what you want to do.
Leaving home won't change who you are or leave your emotional baggage behind, and staying home won't keep anything how it is or make you any less realized than those who go. It's probably the only time that you won't have any consequences for whatever you choose.
RickiTarr