One of the most exciting things about college is moving on from high school. There is something extremely satisfying about seeing all of your hard work pay off and being able to move on with your life. However, there are some things that you'll miss about your days in high school. Sure, there are the obvious things — your parents, your pets, your best friends but there are some things you don't expect to miss as you embark on your freshman year of college.
1. Having Your Schedule Set For You
There is something very comforting about knowing exactly how to spend your time each day. In high school, you go to school for around eight hours, spend another hour or two after school with your extracurricular activities, and then finish off your day at home doing homework and relaxing with whatever free time you have left. College is different. Your schedule is set as far as what time you will be in class, but the times of those classes are random and spread out, and the amount of time you spend outside of class allows for a lot of free time. Suddenly, it's up to you to determine how you spend your time, and what you do with it can make or break your college career, which can be pretty daunting. However, it's also liberating to finally decide what you do when you do it!
2. Seeing Random Acquaintances in the Hallway
There is something strange about never knowing what happened to Tim from second period or how Candace has been doing at her new school. Of course, you will miss your best friends, but you'll make sure to see them when you go home on breaks. You usually never see your acquaintances ever again, and you're left with a strange sense of "what if" when it comes to these almost formed friendships. Again, there is a sort of comfort in always seeing Jen from third period as you stop at your locker every day, that you just don't have anymore. You'll most likely never know how your life would have changed by having those people in your life, but at the same time, there are so many new acquaintances to meet at your new school, that you'll soon be distracted by trying to make new friends to worry about it long.
3. Your Teachers
Personally, I didn't realize how much I would miss my favorite teachers. Every once in a while you'll just get a thought in your head during a lecture, that will remind you of something a teacher once said to you, or you'll think about how much they would have loved the weird project your doing, and you want nothing more than to tell them all about it, but it's likely not possible.Your teachers helped you get to this part of your life, and you can't help but remember everything they taught you and helped you with. If you still have the chance, remind them how important they are and thank them.
4. Your Parents Mannerisms
I distinctly remember the first time I woke up on Saturday to utter silence. That may be normal for some people, but for me, Saturday usually meant my dad was off of work, and probably downstairs singing or watching TV while making breakfast. You'll miss the sound of your sibling laughing in the living room or the way your dog gets excited when your mom gets home from work. You expect to miss seeing them, but you never expect missing the way it sounds when you dad turns on the coffee pot in the morning.
5. The Way Your Bedroom Fan Sounds
Going along with that thought process, you never expect to miss the little things about your house. Sure, you know you'll miss having a room to yourself, or how nice your bed at home is, but what about the way it smells? It's hard to fall asleep sometimes without the usual white noise of your ceiling fan you've had as long as you can remember, and that makes you miss it. Something as small as the way the bathroom sink is the perfect height can be exactly what you miss about being home.
6. Knowing How Far the Grocery Store is from your House
There is also something off about not know how long a trip to the grocery store will take you. You get used to knowing that you have to leave at least five minutes before school starts so that you can be there in time and it's weird when you don't have any clue how long it will take you to get somewhere. You forget to factor in how many stop lights there are, or the fact that you walk to class now, and suddenly you're not sure how long it took you, but you got there eventually.
All of this comes and goes with time, and eventually the smell of back home will seem foreign after all of the time you've spent at school. You'll know down to the second how long it takes to get to the nearest Target and you'll have new semi-friends to stalk on Facebook and wonder where they ended up. College is an exciting new time, and sometimes that can make you miss the way things used to be, but that doesn't make the new things bad. It makes them exciting.
