Another semester has closed. One more school year has come to an end. The grades will soon be submitted and we’ll all either cheer for joy or cry over the results. It is time for all of us to move back home for the next four months and begin our summers.
Like the majority of my fellow students, I counted down the days till I would be going home. As the stress of finals and 10-page research papers got to me, I longed to be home in my own bed, hugging my mom—the endless phone calls I made to her crying over how much I didn’t want to write my last few papers were just not cutting it anymore. And finally, by what would seem like some type of heavenly miracle, but was actually countless hours of hard work, I met with my professors one last time, and got the okay to go home. For me, and thousands of others, going home meant moving out and back to my hometown, a place that in such a short amount of time felt like a completely different life.
We packed up the car with all of my belongs and drove back home and as excited as I was to be going back, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit sad. I found myself feeling upset as I took down my photos and other decorations that I had put up in my dorm to make it feel like home, not realizing that this had becoming my home in a way. It was where I had spent the past year living, where I created a new life for myself, made new friends and grew up just a little bit more.
Was it wrong to be just a little upset about leaving school? Never did I imagine myself missing the long classes and endless nights with a lack of sleep. Summer is only just beginning, yet I can’t wait to get back. It could be the social aspect that I miss already, because who doesn’t love living with their friends and having something to do almost every night. Being able to walk a short distance to my friend’s dorm to relieve stress from classes was something that I had become used to and also had taken for granted.
Don’t get me wrong. I am so happy to be home. I’m happy that I get to see my family and I’m definitely happy to be sleeping in my own bed. I miss being away from home, but I am now hiding that I am now missing the home I created away from home. And that’s okay. It’s okay for all of us to miss being away from school. We have developed a new sense of self at our schools, and have become new people. It’s a bittersweet feeling being home, but all of that is fine.
Hello summer 2016! And while I am very excited that you have arrived, a little part of me is waiting for fall 2016 to show up.
