Before heading to college, everyone always gives you the side comment about trying not to gain weight and the importance of figuring out a regular workout schedule. It’s safe to say we’ve all heard that at least once. While this is all fantastic advice, considering I’m sure none of us want to be sporting a beer belly going on twenty, no one ever tells us the other “Freshman Fifteen” we’ll start noticing.
As a freshman at Wofford and only five weeks in, it’s already glaringly obvious the differences between college life and home. Most of the changes are nice, like more freedom in my decisions, no parent breathing down my neck, no more God forsaken high school classes, but some of those changes make me a little reminiscent for home-life.
As it turns out, I asked around and it just so happens that I’m not the only freshman feeling this way. While we all love the new college scene, we also share a similar form of our own saudade.
Here are 15 things freshman at Wofford didn’t expect to miss so much.
1. Our parents.
Even though they can frustrate us sometimes, they’re our backbone, support system, and usually the first people we want to call to tell about our day. They always know just what to say to help you deal with a tough situation and give you advice that is almost never wrong.
2. Our siblings
Half the time, siblings can drive us crazy and throw us under the bus to save themselves, but they’re really the only people that understand sometimes. When something hilarious happens in your day, you call them first because you know they will find it just as hysterical as you do.
3. Our pets
There’s nothing better than coming home after a long day and cuddling with your dog. Even when it feels like the world is crashing down around you, you can’t help but smile when you walk in the door to see your dog excited to see you. When you fail an exam in college, there’s no going home to your happy puppy, and that’s probably harder than accepting the fact that you may end up on the streets holding up a cardboard poster for the rest of your life.
4. Home-cooked meals
For those of us whose parents liked to cook, there was nothing better than sitting down at the table for a nice hearty dinner, not to mention that it was free. Everyone tells you how bad dining hall food is, but you never expected to miss your parents cooking this much.
5. Our beds
Even with a mattress pad, our dorm room twin beds just can’t compare to our bed at home. We could sleep like a starfish and still keep all four extremities on the bed, which is certainly not the case in college. And making your bed? You can forget that, especially if it’s lofted. Nothing can compare to our bed at home and going home for breaks always includes the best night of sleep you’ll get all week.
6. Privacy
Aside from having a room to ourselves at home, I’m sure none of us ever realized how lucky we were to have so much privacy. In college you’re almost always with someone, your roommate and friends especially. Whether you want to nap, eat, do homework, or cry over a bucket of ice cream while watching “P.S. I Love You,” you get to do all of it in the company of your wonderful roommate. I guess you could call it friendship bonding?
7. Our closets
As girls, we took a hard hit moving to college and being forced to leave half of our wardrobe at home. We miss having twenty scarves to choose from instead of just two, or our collection of shoes that had to be deliberated over and narrowed down for packing purposes. Every change of season brings the decision making back to the forefront where we have to decide all over again what to bring and what to leave. Our little dorm room closets are nothing in comparison to the ones we have at home.
8. Our bathroom
Even though it was a pain to clean, never before were we so thankful for a shower without wadded up hairballs on the floor and uncomfortable shower shoes on our feet. At home, we could fix our hair and make up in peace or walk to the bathroom during the night in just our underwear without fear of judgment. That is certainly not the case in college. Community style, while it has it’s few perks, is nothing like our bathrooms at home.
9. Downtime
We thought we had a lot of homework in high school, but once we got to college we realized what a lot of homework actually felt like. 30 minutes of downtime is now a luxury, whereas in high school, we could watch a season of Gossip Girl in one week and still have time to spare. Free time is a foreign term at this point and something all of us, I’m sure, are dying to have back.
10. Local Restaurants
Even though we all grew tired of our hometowns by move in day, eating out just isn’t the same without the familiarity of our favorite local restaurants from home, not to mention having to actually pay for food. Nothing is familiar in our college towns yet and we’re already burned out of the food on campus: an obviously bad combination. We miss the local places where you knew the best things to order and got the same thing every time, and we just haven’t found that here yet.
11. Fewer responsibilities
Before coming to college, we had no idea how easy we had it. For those of us with awesome moms, we only had to do our laundry on occasion and had very little cleaning to do other than keeping our room from looking like a pig sty. Now we have to cut out time to vacuum our room, do laundry, and even do dishes. Doing dishes never seemed like something you had to cut out time for, all thanks to the dishwasher and a cabinet full of other clean cups to choose from. In college, a week goes by before you realize you have five mugs, three bowls, and a stack of silverware that you now have to cut out twenty minutes of time just to clean in the bathroom sink. Never before have we been so thankful for our dishwashers.
12. Our car
Being in college without a car is like being thrown back in time to our 15 year old selves. We go around begging for a ride to a restaurant or to Wal-Mart to get paper towels and yogurt. We never realized how easy life was when you had your own car and didn’t have to go around paying favors for people who were willing to take you to run errands.
13. Our church
For those of us who make church a weekly priority, it feels weird church hopping most Sundays to try to find the best fit. At home, you went to the same church every week and saw the same people and enjoyed the familiarity. Here, it feels weird not having a home base, and you’re ready to be plugged in somewhere good. Nothing can compare to your old church though, and you’re left constantly comparing them and missing your old church more than ever.
14. Freedom of sound
At home, you could be as grumpy and grouchy and even slam drawers in the morning when you didn’t want to get up for school, but now, you have to be bitter in silence in fear of experiencing the wrath of waking your sleeping roommate that doesn’t have to be up for class until eleven. You hate that you have to be quiet and fumble around in the dark looking for the assignment due for your next class.
And lastly...
15. Family time
As much as we griped about it when we were in high school, there is nothing better than sitting down with your family for dinner, a movie, or an old fashioned game night and just enjoying the crazy, dysfunctional people you’ve grown up loving. Being in college without them, while sometimes can be relieving, just isn’t quite the same and every day that comes closer to a break where you get to go see them is an even better day than the one before.
