Feeling out of place in your hometown doesn’t mean you don’t belong there. You just added more places to belong.

Belonging is not a single slot you either occupy or lose. Once you have lived somewhere else, your hometown stops being the whole world and becomes one of several places you fit, which is why it can feel slightly loose on you now. That looseness is addition rather than subtraction.

When you are back and feel like a visitor, go and do ordinary things rather than only the nostalgic ones: the shop, the walk, somebody’s kitchen. Talk about the present with the people there, not only the past. You can belong in more than one place at once.