Birds don’t fly south because they hate the north. They go where they can grow. Leaving isn’t always rejection.

A departure is not automatically a judgment on the place being left. People read it that way, since staying looks like loyalty, but the actual reason is usually simpler: the conditions for growth are somewhere else right now. Wanting different conditions is not the same as being ungrateful. Both things can be true, and often are.

If you are the one leaving, say the honest reason out loud so nobody has to invent one. And if somebody is leaving you, resist reading it as a review of you or your town.