When you attend a university that means you're living away from home, coming home for winter break can be a roller-coaster of emotions. From the excitement of first getting home and having real food in the fridge to the frustration of realizing you once again have to let your parents know every time you leave the house and how late you're going to be out, like you're back in high school. There are a few things we all know too well when we come home for the holidays, from the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.
1. Not having to make/pay for your own food
When you're away at school, your probably either getting your meals from a dining hall, attempting to make something at home, or buying actual quality food from somewhere else. Being home means not having to fend for your own meals like a bear in the wild, but being well fed by a family that wants to make sure you're eating right. Whether that means home cooked meals or simply not having to pay for your own food at a restaurant with your parents, it's quite a relief. Mostly because if you're anything like me, it means not worrying about burning your hand taking a frozen pizza out of the oven again.
2. Constant critique from random family members
Surely you'll be dragged to a family gathering or two over break, and that means potentially running into those few members of your family who you can barely remember how you're related to criticizing everything from your major to your body to your relationship status. It could be a relative making a scathing remark about you gaining the freshman fifteen, or some great aunt probing about when you're getting married when you don't even have a boyfriend. Despite that half your family didn't even go to college, it seems like in their eyes everything you do should be slightly different. The worst part is you can't be rude to you fam, so you're stuck there just trying to take it like a champ while lo*w key kdying on the inside.
3. Having to avoid certain topics around your family
Whether it's a difference in political opinions or simply not being able to discuss your party life away school, certain topics are just off limits, and they can be difficult to not slip out occasionally. Sometimes it's having to censor a story about your best friend who your mom thinks is so sweet who got really drunk and fell out of a car, and sometimes it's cutting yourself off when you were about to make an anti-Trump remark to your extremely conservative aunt. Whatever it is with your family, you know the feeling of not being able to be your full self all the time.
4. Running into your mom's friends/coworkers and realizing they know literally everything about your life
You run into someone your mom works with at a store and find out that they know who you're dating, what they look like, what you changed your major to and where you're studying abroad even though you have literally never spoken to this person before. While flattering, it can be sufficiently awkward, and even if you tell your mom not to tell everybody about your life from now on, you know she's still going to do it.
5. If you're Christian, going to Christmas Eve service and realizing it's really more of a fashion show
It's become a lot more of a competition about which girl you went to high school with has the cutest but still church-appropriate dress than a celebration. You should be taking this time to pray and be happy but instead you can't help but find yourself silently judging everyone who graduated with you who also showed up to service.
6. Still sitting around the Christmas tree to open presents and realizing it's just not the same as when you were younger
As authentic as you try to make it, it's just hard when both you and your siblings aren't even in your teens anymore. You want Christmas to feel real and well, Christmasy, but it seems to get more difficult each year, especially now that you're asking for laptops rather than barbies.
7. Living out of a suitcase for a month
It's not really worth unpacking, and there's no way your going to wear any of the clothes you left behind from high school, so it's the natural way to go. Eventually you just kind of end up with several piles of clean, semi clean, and completely dirty clothing that just sort of accumulates in your room until your mom finds it and washes them all for you.
8. Wishing your college friends/boyfriend/girlfriend were there with you
When your best friends are the ones you met in college, it can be pretty rough when you realize you're all going to your separate homes for three to four weeks. Sure, there's your high school friends, but people change and sometimes you just need your best friend from school. Even worse is if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend who lives far away, especially when the holiday stress kicks in. You're adult enough to be dating seriously (some people your age are married with children already), but still in a stage where you go to your separate family homes for the holidays. Even though you love being home and not having the stress that comes with school, at some point you might find yourself wishing winter break could just end already so you could see them all again.
9. But also knowing that you are definitely going to miss all of this when you head back to school again
No buying groceries, seeing your mom every day, having your pets home with you, all the stuff you hate leaving behind when you leave again. Especially when you're in the middle of midterm week with nothing but peanut butter and old carrot sticks to eat, but it's okay. Home is always there for you. Just stay strong still summer.
