Going off to college is when I truly felt like I was growing up. I was on my own for the first time in my life and couldn't rely on my dad to give me money or my mom to make me dinner every night. Although it was a battle that had many ups and downs, I became fully acclimated to being on my own.
Going to a school seven hours from home, I only get to go home four to five times a year; so whenever I get to go home, I am very excited. I miss my family and my friends, but I truly feel like since I've gone to college, going home has become a trip and home doesn't necessarily feel like home anymore.
Every time I go home, it feels like a more distant place that I am beginning to not recognize anymore. Everything looks the same, but something doesn't feel right. I feel like I am a visitor in the place I lived in for 19 years of my life. Going home, things just don't feel the same.
Whether we like it or not, life is full of changes. Over the past two and a half years, I have come to realize that I can either accept change or try to resist it. Going home has really made me want to resist change because I don't want to give up what I once knew and I don't want to forget the memories that were once made.
Every time I have gone home, something about the house is different. Whether it's new furniture, a new dog, new garage door, new car or rearranged bedrooms, it's hard to become acclimated to change when you're only home for a few short days or weeks. While in college, my parents have made many changes to my home. They got rid of the swing set where I learned how to swing, they painted over the height markings on the wall, and they redid the kitchen where I learned how to make my grandma's Christmas cookies. While the physical objects may be different, the memories still remain.
Miranda Lambert describes this situation perfectly in her song, "The House that Built Me." In this song, she goes back to her childhood home and wants to see if she can truly go home again. Although the house she went to was once her home, the only thing left of her childhood home are the memories.
While your parents might rearrange furniture, buy new things or move out of your childhood home while you're away at college, you can rely on the memories to bring you home again.
