There's a confidence in not hating or pitying the region that birthed you, a joy in maintaining the strong ties you choose, and a peace in not hierarchically ranking the cultures that compose your identity. It's possible to love a place from afar and never really leave it.
Ann Friedman on being a "joyfully displaced midwesterner"
I agree and at the same time, I will say that I've noticed that midwesterners tend to love the midwest in inverse proportion to how long they've lived elsewhere & how far away from home they are.