A Long Answer to that Tinder Question…

So, where are you from?"

After hours spent on Tinder, Bumble or whatever the new one is called, I'll have been asked this question more times than I can count on my two hands. I could reply with an unoriginal, cliché "home is where I rest my feet" but... just no. For me, home is St Ives, right down at the very bottom of the Cornish peninsula. I'm always proud to mention it, perhaps a little too much after being met with a sigh and an eye roll when I tell someone for the fifth or so time. But what's not to love? It was the birthplace of my parents and where I was raised.

Yet it wasn't love at first sight. Of course I enjoyed being brought up there, but I never thought that I was special - it was just home, after all. As a child I would witness the thousands that flock down in the summer holidays, spade and bucket in hand, slapping on their SPF 50, and fighting for their square inch of beach. I couldn't understand: sure Cornwall has the soft sand beaches, Mediterranean lookalike waters and dramatic landscapes, but doesn't everywhere by the coast? Turns out I was wrong once again.

I didn't fully become romanced by Cornwall until I left to study in Bournemouth. I thought this coastal town would be the same... but how wrong was I? Homesickness grew and I soon found myself rushing back to the Cornish coastal paths, trying to take as much in with my new-found love of photography. The sickness only grew stronger as I ventured up to London for work. Today I sit in the city smog and can only admire travel photography submitted from around the world. Yet I dream of the days when I get to see those rugged cliffs, squalling seagulls and lapping waves again. Now that's a true romance story.

@roam02

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A Day in St. Ives, Cornwall