My senior year of high school, I made my commitment to cheer for the next four years... seven hours away I was obviously going to be making a big move, but little did I know how much that move was going to affect me. Not only was I leaving my family, but my friends and significant other too.. so here are seven things I wish I knew before moving seven hours from my life, and my sanity.
1.You find out who your friends are.
People were not kidding when they said when you move away to college, you know who your friends are. Everyone checks in the first few weeks, you get a text here and there a tweet favorite or reply. Then suddenly, they stop. Except for the acceptable few who realize home just isn’t the same without your best friend though.
2.Going home rocks, the drive not so much.
Always told myself I wouldn’t mind a weekend at home, then I made the drive...alone. I never minded road trips as a kid, riding in the car playing the license plate game, taking a nap for an hour or two, or seeing how many semi drivers you could get to honk was fun as a kid, but we didn’t realize all the driving issues our parents were experiencing. From semis trying to pass other semis and cars driving slow in the left lane, driving home is one big nuisance.
3.Mom and Dad’s cooking is amazing.
Mom was always the cook in my family, and sometimes my dad would try and not that it wasn’t great, but it just wasn’t Mom’s cooking. Then I went to college. First week there “the caff” was great. I had the freedom to choose what I wanted to eat and no more mom saying “this is what I’m making and you just have to deal with it”. Once week two rolled around, I was craving some of Mom’s lasagna, taco soup, or ribs, at this point just about anything but “caff” food. Nothing can replace a good home cooked meal every now and then.
4.Long distance relationships are hard
My senior year I ended the year in a very good relationship. It was strong through the summer and nothing could have been more perfect. And of course moving day would finally arrive and I would leave him for at least 3 more months. The first week or two school was rough, I was adjusting to a totally new environment and he was adjusting to me being 7 hours away instead of 7 minutes. Things got too tough at one point and we ended the relationship, but both of us knowing we would soon regret leaving the other. We told each other in early August we were the couple to beat the odds and survive a long distance relationship. Little did we know how difficult it really was going to be and it would be wear and tear on the relationship. Although now we took a year to mature and things are fantastic again, we have learned more about each other and what to expect in the following years. No matter how easy you think long distance will be, it won’t be that easy no matter how long the relationship or how perfect it started out to be.
5.Very few of my teachers made that difference in high school.
Not very many of my teachers made much of a difference in high school. All of my teachers started senior year out with the same lecture over and over again about how this class was going to prepare me for college and everything we were going to learn is something that would be brought up again at some point in my college courses. Don’t listen to all of them, only a couple of those teachers are telling the truth. My junior year only one teacher was telling me the truth, and that was my English teacher. She may have made that class beyond difficult but, if that class hadn’t been that hard I probably wouldn’t have been prepared for my British Lit course (thank you Miss Tinnon). My senior year I had three teachers that actually taught me useful information for my college years, two of those classes being dual enrollment and the third was Advanced Chemistry. Each teacher lifted weight off my shoulders once I got to college and started my first semester and realized I was already prepared for some of my courses since I had taken something similar the year before.
6. New friends are sometimes better than the old ones.
Moving 7 hours away was a HUGE change for me. Moving to southern hospitality was a complete culture shock to me. I had no idea what to expect when I first went to my best friend's house. Her parents were beyond welcoming and practically became my second family while I was down there. They made me a part of their family faster than I could say thank you. She made my freshman year seemingly easy by always having a ear open to listen to my stupid and serious problems no matter what time of day. My friends at school have almost made a bigger impact in the one year I've known them compared to the years I knew my old friends.
7.There is NO place like home.
No matter how many times people say moving away is easy, it is not. No matter how many times you say you hate your home town and you are never coming back, you will, even if it is onlye for a couple of months. Nothing can compare to your hometown and all the stupid high school memories we thought we would forget about in our first semster. There just truly is no place like home.
