Ahh, Christmas Break. Easily the most anticipated thing about college life, except maybe Spring Break. For students like myself, going home for the first time in 4 months, I repeat 4 MONTHS, is kind of a huge deal. It's been 4 months since you've been able to give your parents a hug and pet your dogs. I could not wait until Christmas Break.

The day had finally arrived. All of my finals were finished, and I was on my way home. It was going to take about 11 hours of flying to make it back to the sweet, sweet state of Alaska, but I was so ready. Skip forward the most stressful 11 hours of flying that you could think of, and I was finally back home. As I stepped off of the airplane, I could feel the crisp air rush around me as I made my down the jetway. It took me a nanosecond to figure out which direction I needed to head in to make my way to my waiting family, and I headed that way. As I walk to the area where passengers come out past security, I saw my dad and one of my brothers sitting on the benches. I couldn't handle it anymore. The moment I had been thinking about for 4 months was finally here, well, almost. I knew my mom had to stay at home with my other brothers, so I would see her when I finally arrived at the only house I had ever called home. I rushed to my dad and flung my arms around him, and it was all I could do from crying. I had missed this so much, I had missed him so much. As we walked to the car, we talked about travels and what was new around town, but it was just nice to sit in the presence of my dad that I didn't say much on the ride home. I got home, and I ran up to my front door, and I could hear the clacking of my dogs paws running to the front door to see who was coming up to their house. Little did they know. As I flung the door open, I yelped with joy as I saw the recognition in both pairs of eyes. My dogs started barking and jumping, I could have stayed there all night. But there was still one person that I needed to see more than my dogs, my mom. I could hear her footsteps upstairs as she made her way down to the living room, oh how I had missed that sound. When I finally saw her, I dropped everything in my hands and just held on to her. This was when I was finally home. She had my favorite food ready for me, spaghetti of course, even though it was 2 am, and we sat at the table and ate and talked for as long as I could handle it, but the drowsiness overcame me, and I trudged on up to my room. My room. I had been sharing a small space with 2 other girls, 2 very very clean girls may I add, and it had been months since I felt safe and secure in my room. The moment was here. I laid on my bed, but it wasn't as comfortable as I remembered, the one at school seemed to be better for my body, but it was something that I was willing to handle because hey, at least I had my own room.

In the blink of an eye, two weeks had gone by, and it was time for me to return to school. I had always hear that saying goodbye at Christmas is easier than saying goodbye in August, but let me tell you that is some bullcrap if I have ever heard it. The only thing that made leaving home somewhat better is knowing that I was returning to a group of people who loved me and cared about me.

In August, I was traveling to a new place full of faces that I had never seen before, wondering if this was the right choice. In December, I was making my way back to a campus that had begun to feel like home and good friends who had decided to jump into this wild ride that we call college alongside of me.