Honor where you’re from without letting it decide where you’re allowed to go.

Where you grew up gives you language, humor, loyalties and a sense of what normal looks like. All of that is worth keeping. The trap is letting it quietly set a limit, so that anything beyond what people around you did starts to feel like betrayal or fantasy.

Notice the moments when you talk yourself out of something by saying people like you do not do that. Ask whether that is a fact or a habit of thought you inherited. You can carry your place with you and still go somewhere it has never been.