Are you proud of where you grew up???

As is evident from the name of my blog, I am from Burnley.
I call myself a Burnley girl despite the fact that I have lived at different times in my life in different parts of the world (Luton, Glasgow, Huddersfield, Sydney, Lancaster, Peterborough, San Jose and London) and I left my family in Burnley when I moved out of home ten years ago.
Also, given the sorry state of local politics, economic decline, racial relations and football violence that have existed in the town's recent history some people could be forgiven for wondering why I still affiliate myself to the town with such loyalty.
I am currently drawing on my knowledge and experiences of Burnley to write a full length play for my MA in Creative Writing and it is one of the most difficult pieces of writing I have ever attempted and I'm not even half way through it yet. It is very strange to look back through your past using the (hopefully) more mature and analytical eyes of a writer.
When you are creating a story, can you be objective and subjective at the same time?
The wonderful writer and lovely man that is Kwame Kwei-Armah would argue that you can as he calls his plays “the theatre of my front room” because that’s where, for him, everything began. I think I feel the same way.
I am suddenly filled questions about what it means to belong to a place, what it is important to have in a community and what you do if those two things clash against one another...
I am suddenly just as critical of the people who think the town has nothing but a bad reputation as much as I am about the people who give the town nothing but a bad reputation.
As I dig deeper into the complexities of a town that has become the problem child of modern society I am discovering that the true motives of people from or for Burnley are not always what they seem and are certainly not represented in the national press the same way people in Burnley see them.
So, to answer the question am I proud of where I grew up?
Yes I am.
I have no shame about being a girl from Burnley, I have no regrets that I spent a significant chunk of my formative years growing up there and, even if I have lost most of my northern accent now, I would still use the last of my vocal chords defending Burnley and it's people if I had to.
I hope what I write will do the town justice and I hope I can do it soon enough to make it count (it is slightly alarming to discover people like Robin Soans and Anna Clarkson using the same subject matter as you are).
But even if my play surfaces when people are sick of hearing about it, even if people from Burnley hate it and disown me, even if it becomes known as the worst play in the world I will still cherish it.
Would I want to write about Burnley if I wasn't from there? Perhaps.
Would I need to write about Burnley if I wasn't from there? Perhaps not.
Writing it is proving painful, getting it out there will be excruciating I'm sure but I honestly don't think I can move forward as a writer or as a person until I have got through both.
I am hoping I can emerge 7 months from now as a stronger, more successful writer not someone who gave up on both their future and their past all in one go.
Perhaps what is comforting to know is that, either way, I will still be the same girl from Burnley.