Leaving after first year, feeling guilty.

I’m currently a first year teacher at a fantastic school. I felt very supported this year, I love the kids, and generally everything went really well. The only downside is the location of the school. I moved pretty far away from home to take this job, and it’s a small school in the middle of nowhere. I’ve been asked many times if I was going to stick around or be a “short timer.” I was pretty insistent that I love the job and plan on staying.

The problem is, I’m now struggling a lot. I feel like I’ve become a shell of a person because I don’t have anything outside of work. I don’t have friends or family here, and there’s not really much to do. For that reason, I spend a lot of time alone. I come home from school and throw myself into more work. At the beginning this was necessary when I was in survival mode. Now that I’ve gotten into the swing of things as a first year teacher, the realization has hit that every other part of my life fell to the wayside, and my mental health has taken a dive. I think moving back home to the area where I grew up would be a better option for me. I really need my existing support systems, because as a first year teacher, I feel that I don’t have adequate time to invest in building a new support system in a new place. But now, I’m feeling a lot of guilt. I feel like I’m giving up. I feel like I’m letting a lot of people down by leaving. I’m not sure if it looks bad to switch schools after my first year, I’m not sure if I should try to stick it out for one more year at this school. And when I do choose to leave, I want to tell them at a time that doesn’t create too much of a burden, but I also want to make sure that I have a job next year. I feel like I can’t tell them for sure until I’ve gone through at least a few interviews.

Am I making a mistake? What’s the best way to go about this?