We have all been here I am sure: going home for a short time during the school year. Recently I took a trip home for four days, mostly for a doctor's appointment but it was nice to be home for a few days. On my three and half hour drive back to campus I realized how many aspects of going home that I dislike. Here are my top five:
5. The School Work
Just the same from high school, skipping school is all fun and games till you get back and missed several assignments and important lectures. Personally I forgot to email an assignment to a teacher by Sunday at Midnight and should have started an essay for teacher review. School is funny that way is it not? We've all been there, not at school for couple of days and BOOM assignments out the wa-zoo. I just so happened to missed a Monday and did not check how many assignments were due that week. Yay college!
4. The Travel Time
Unless your that student that lives an hour or less away from campus, you likely have decent drive to do. My hometown is three and half hours away approximately, give or take traffic and construction conditions. It is doubly bad because it is all desert between campus and home and usually no cloud cover. Whether you are flying, driving or some combination involving a kayak and one snow ski, the trips home, especially by yourself, are not very fun.
3. The Freedoms and Independence
Inevitably, when a student goes off to college they will be become independent and have a sense of freedom not experienced living under a roof parents own. Here at college I stay up as late as I want and wake up at my own speed and just decide "I am going to do something!" however at home I plan my day and tell my mom about it for no real reason, if anything she gets a little annoyed when I will not leave her alone. It just happens. Or we get used to doing our own thing simply because we want to, like wearing swimwear when it is cold outside, if we try to something like that home, the siblings or parents are going to at least give you the look, each family has one and we know it the instant we see it.
2. Missing Friends
Whether we are a social butterfly with friends across campus or only have that one person we really enjoy hanging out with, we often begin to miss them after only a day. We are happy to see our family and pets and miss them when we go to school, but its not the same as the friend from school.
1. The Pets
*sigh of deep sorrow* The worst part of going home for a few days is and will probably always be leaving our four-legged family members behind once again. Our life is made brighter by being home and visiting them and the normally annoying tasks of walking, feeding and other pet owner responsibilities are no longer annoying, they are happy feelings and you just miss doing them. Every time I leave my dog at home one more time I cry a little bit and begin to consider dropping out. As I driver further away I come a little more to my senses each mile and realize this is not forever and I will see them again.
Every time we go there are always good things to look forward to, Mom's cooking, sibling shenanigans or pet cuddles. But it will always come to an end while we are in college and we have to go back to "adult-ing".
