If someone were to ask me what my favorite part of the holidays was, I would absolutely say coming home to see my family. The glorious feeling of finishing yet another semester and heading home for a stress-free month of family time is like no other…so we all say. In reality, as much as I love my family, after about 2 weeks of break, I am dying to go back to school. Despite the lack of home-cooked food, the absence of my bed, and the homesick feeling that comes with being away from family, I want nothing more right now than to be back in my dorm at school with all my friends. Call me crazy, but there are actually a ton of things I really truly miss about being up at school. It may not be ideal living conditions, but there are a lot of elements of living on campus that I am starting to miss during this extensive break.

1. The convenience of having my friends living down the hall from me.

I cannot tell you how many times I have woken up at home, expecting something, literally ANYTHING to be happening, but have been sadly disappointed by my family all being at work and school. Being home alone was a great remedy for the original post semester stress I faced, but after a few weeks, I can accurately say that I am bored out of my mind. I also now face the issue that I have to put on real clothes and leave my house to go see my friends. Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer to be able to walk down the hall in my polar bear PJ pants and my slipper socks to see my friends.

2. The convenience of being able to walk to the gym.

So after all the holiday festivities, I’ve noticed that my body type gives away the fact that I’ve snuck a few too many Christmas cookies from our stash. What can I say? I have a sweet tooth. As much as I am totally determined to get back to the gym and work off these few extra pounds, the gym is no longer within walking distance. At home, I have to drive to the rec center to work out, and the rec center in my community does not have all the different workout machines the gym at school does. My trips to the gym are also determined by whether or not I can take the car, and usually, someone else is using it.

3. The set routine of classes.

As strange as it sounds, I am definitely more productive when I’m on a time crunch. That being said, I feel much more accomplished when I am at school, going to classes and completing internship applications, than I do at home. I had a whole slew of things I planned to do over this break, an I’ve gotten some of them done, but I also have done a whole bunch of nothing. And as tempting as my bed can be, I am beyond ready to go back to spending the majority of my day out of it.

4. The lack of availability of good food.

This one might not make much sense, but I actually like that I don’t have delicious desserts and dinners right at my fingertips. My mom is possibly the best cook I have ever met, and as much as I love her food, I come home and eat WAY too much of it. The lack of home-cooked food forces me to eat healthily, which betters both my body and my mood. So as much as I love home-made pasta with marinara sauce whenever I want it at home, I will gladly go back to my healthy diet at school now.

5. The freedom of living on my own.

I’ve found out the hard way that I cannot just decide I want to go out at 1AM at home. No matter what I decide to do, I always have my parents questioning me. Where are you going? Who are you going with? What are you doing? When will you be home? Nine times out of ten, I don’t have the answers to those questions. Living on my own for the majority of the year allows me to run on my own schedule, but coming home and having someone to report to drives me insane.

6. Along with that autonomy, the freedom to be as messy as I please.

So I don’t like to make my bed every morning…or pick up any of my clothes off the floor immediately, but who does??? If I’m the only person seeing my room, I don’t understand why it matters whether or not I clean it, but my parents sure do. After days of hearing “Is your bed made yet?” while I am still happily relaxing in it, I am beyond ready to go back to leaving my bed and my room as messy as I’d like it, and I can’t be the only one who thinks this way.