You’ll get nostalgic for versions of yourself you were desperate to escape. That’s normal. Don’t move back in.

Nostalgia has bad judgement. You can find yourself missing a year you spent desperate to get out of, because what you are actually missing is being younger, having that much time ahead, or the people who happened to be nearby, none of which is an endorsement of the year itself. It is a sensation about time passing, dressed up as a verdict about a place.

So write down why you left, once, while you still remember clearly. Read it on the evenings the longing shows up. Visit the memory as often as you like and do not take its advice.