Go back to your hometown after a year and notice what feels smaller. That’s how you measure how much you grew.

Places do not shrink, your scale changes. A street that felt enormous goes quiet when you come back with a year of other places in you, and that difference is one of the few measurements of growth you can feel. None of it means the place was lesser. It means your frame got bigger, which is hard to notice from inside the change.

If you go back, walk a route you used to walk daily and pay attention to what has changed size. Write a line about it, because the feeling fades fast. Then look for what still feels exactly the same, since that part is probably about you.