The great part about being away at school is that you get to be your own person and have your own experiences.

Each semester you get the rush of relief of having your own timetable, where you can eat whatever you want whenever you want and you won’t get prodded for spending probably too many hours in bed when you’re supposed to be doing things. As great as being away at college might be, going home always has it’s special perks that you realize how much you missed while you’re at school.

Going home for the first time after being at school for a while is a mix of feelings and emotions, but there will always be a few things you’ll miss about your home.

1. Not having to think about food and not eating at weird hours

One of the greatest things that marks a homecoming is the abundance of home cooked meals and snacks that you are surrounded by. Every time I go home I always get really excited for the family dinners and meals where you don’t have to do any preparation or maybe even not paying for and that’s the best part.

Being home reminds you of how amazing it is to sit around a dinner table and talk about your life and your day while you eat instead of take out containers and scrolling through your phone at dinner sitting at a table alone.

Also, when you’re home you actually eat at decent and appropriate hours instead of going to Cookout at 2am and eating truly greasy food.

2. Being around super familiar people

Each time you go home, you probably have an agenda where you know who you’re going to see and what you’re going to do. I know that for me and my friends, we have it all mapped out so that we try to all be home at the same time so we can all hang out and see each other.

There’s something so special about seeing your friends and family after such a long time apart. There’s a lot of catching up to do, plenty of jokes and countless laughter. When you’re with your people, time just seems to fly until it’s time to go back to your college town.

3. Going to familiar places on familiar roads

Whether or not you have a car and the ability to drive while at college, being home with the ability to drive on familiar roads always brings a sense of peace. You don’t really have to think about where you are going, you just go based off of muscle memory and before you know it you’re where you want to go.

In college though, I’m always trying to figure out if I’m going the right way or where certain places are and I definitely always use my phone’s GPS. When I’m home though, it’s absolutely second nature to just know where everything is in my hometown.

4. Going back to old habits

When I go home I feel like a different person. In college, I grew as a person and developed my own likes and dislikes and developed my own thoughts. Each time I go home, however, I feel like the old, comfortable persona of myself has come back. I dive back into the old habits I had when I was growing up.

For example, every time I go home and go to church on Sunday morning, I make a point to go and talk to everyone who I would normally see frequently but don’t anymore because I’m at school. I used to talk to these people so often but now I primarily only talk to them when I visit home. Whenever I go home, I always gravitate to the habits I used to have before college.

5. Appreciating all the little things

I attach to the things that I love about being home and those little things bring back my whole life before I was a college student. I also get to appreciate all the things that I don’t have in college. In college, I don’t have someone there reminding me to manage my time and to get all my work done on time, but when I’m home, I have that support system that reminds me of the things I need to do.

When I’m home I also appreciate being around my parents. I always forget what it’s like to always have someone to talk to and get advice from. And sure, they’re only a text or a call away, but being with my parents in person is always better.

Going home always brings a lot of emotions to the surface. More often than not I feel a sense of nostalgia when I go by my old schools and go to the restaurants and fast food places that my friends and I would go to after every football game.

I’ve only ever lived in one place my whole life and from that I realize all the things I miss about being home when I’m not there. I’ll always be partial to the feelings and memories that I got from living where I did and growing up with the people and places that I am so familiar with. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.