Even if your heart is in New Mexico, sometimes work, family commitments or life events make it impossible to stay here. We get it, and we bet you feel nostalgic for the Land of Enchantment. Why wouldn’t you? Here are the 18 things everyone who has moved away misses most:

1. Where did all these people come from? And why are they all driving at once?
Flickr/ANOXLOU
Outside of the most urban areas, New Mexicans are spoiled with fairly empty roads and a population that is easily exceeded by livestock.
2. I miss the open space.
Flickr/Samat Jain
You may have taken the vast expanses of open space around you for granted but, once it’s been replaced with urban sprawl, you’ll feel nostalgic at the memory of undeveloped land as far as the eye can see.
3. Which companies ship New Mexican chile out of state?
Flickr/Carlos del Vaca
Discuss chile with an out-of-stater and they’ll assume you’re talking about jalapenos.
4. No one’s asked me if I want red or green in a really long time.
Yelp/Johnny L.
5. Why are restaurants offering me a basket of bread…
Yelp/Marty S.
…When it’s clear that fresh tortilla chips are far superior?
6. I’d give up access to all these pro sports teams in a heartbeat…
Yelp/RA-chelle S.
...For a freshly made sopaipilla drenched in honey.
7. Note to self: do not use fingers to pluck pasta from boiling water.
Flickr/Jared Cherup
At sea level this habit can be harmful because water boils at a much higher temperature. The higher the altitude, the lower the boiling point.
8. I can’t believe gas stations here (wherever “here” may be) don’t sell freshly made burritos or chimichangas.
Flickr/Gregory Veen
Oh, Allsup’s…
9. In New Mexico, we have mountains.
Flickr/Jim Kimmons
What passes for a "mountain" in other parts of the country won't impress many New Mexicans.

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10. There’s nothing like a New Mexico sunset.
Flickr/Whiplus
Sunsets are beautiful in most places but New Mexico’s have a searing beauty that is hard to find anywhere else.
11. Or the intense blue of our skies.
Flickr/torbakhopper
No filters needed.
12. Why didn’t I learn to identify all the constellations when I could marvel at them every night?
Flickr/Jason Carpenter
Other states have so much light pollution.
13. It isn’t summer without the sound of coyotes yipping in the middle of the night.
Flickr/Jared Tarbell
14. Seriously, people are complaining about rain?
Flickr/Todd Shoemake
Send it to New Mexico. And while you’re at it, refer to it as a monsoon. It’ll help with the homesickness.
15. The Land of Enchantment must be enchanted because snow melts at triple the rate it does in other places.
Flickr/Jay Cross
(And you aren’t expected to shovel a dirt road.)
16. Christmas isn’t as magical without these.
Flickr/Christopher Holden
17. I miss the New Mexican sense of humor.
Flickr/chuck wilkson
18. When can I move back?
Flickr/Brad Patterson

Have you ever moved away from New Mexico or are you currently living elsewhere? What do you miss most about the Land of Enchantment?

Check out our past article: “10 Things People ALWAYS Ask When They Know You’re From New Mexico.”

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