When you walk in the door after that long car ride home, hands full of your entire closet because you have a bad habit of over-packing, you feel ecstatic to be home. You can finally sleep in a comfy bed, shower without shoes on, and you don’t have to go to class all week! Holidays are a great time filled with joy and home-cooked food, but being home from school isn’t always as jolly as the holiday you’re celebrating.
1. Forgetting to pack something you need and having to do without it because it’s two hours away.
I mean I guess I won’t have straight hair for 10 days... And I hope I don’t need to dress fancy to go anywhere because I didn’t bring a dress home.Somehow I over-packed, but I still didn’t pack enough.
2. People have lives, and they can’t just drop everything to see you while you’re home.
Okay, I understand people have things to do, but I’m only home for 10 days. Can’t you arrange your schedule a little so I can see you? Then, you’re bored because no one else is on break. If you text your friends trying to make plans, they respond with “I’m in math class” or “I’m at work.” Okay that’s valid, but what am I supposed to do with you guys are at work or school?
3. Your bedroom feels strange.
It’s incomplete because you brought all your favorite things to college with you. Your closet is half empty because all your clothes are at school and your favorite canvases are hanging on the walls in your dorm room. You get this odd feeling in which you know you’re home, but it just doesn’t feel quite the same. Plus, you’ve gotten so used to your dorm room that being at home is like staying in a hotel for a week.
4. You're in a different time zone.
You don't realize the time change until you have homework due at 11:59 which is actually 10:59 at home. And you get really confused your laptop is an hour ahead of your phone, so you think you're watching Netflix at 1 a.m. but it's only midnight.
5. Running into everyone you know.
You go to the grocery store for your mom and run into that girl you couldn’t stand in high school, your ex, one of your high school teachers, and your Pop Warner coach. Sometimes it's nice to see people you haven’t seen in a while, but it’s definitely not a good day when you run into someone in your grossest sweats and you can feel their judgement being cast upon you from the deli counter.
6. Your friends that still live in your hometown are closer because they get to see each other more often.
You know they obviously hang out without you because you live two hours away, but you weren’t prepared to be a third wheel when you came home. They have little inside jokes now, or they talk about something they did without you. And you know they don’t do any of this to hurt you -- it’s just hard realizing how much you miss while you’re gone.
7. You feel like you’re annoying people by constantly telling stories about school or your new friends, but those are the only new stories you have to tell.
All your relatives ask you how you like school and what your major is and have you met any friends, so you repeat the same information 10 times before you even finish dinner (sorry to anyone who saw me last time I was home and already heard all of this). When your high school friends ask you “What’s new?” how else can you respond except with something fun you did with your college friends last weekend? Then you have to tell them about your new friends or they won’t actually understand your story. Then 20 minutes later you realize you’re boring them and stop talking.
8. All the bittersweet memories you remember driving past places in your hometown.
Your high school, Dairy Queen, your BFFs’ house -- these places bring back so many good memories, but it’s also a little sad that things are different now and you can’t go hang out with your best friend since second grade at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday because you’re upset about a boy. FaceTime just isn’t the same thing.
9. You miss your college friends.
You can’t text them and ask if they want to go get food or spontaneously go hang out in their room because they live three hours away now. It’s sad not seeing your besties every day, but you can’t wait to go back to school and hear all about their break.
