This past semester, I began my freshmen year of college. Before beginning college, I did not know what to expect since I had never experienced being on my own or away from my home. When I went through my first semester of college, I felt like I had grown so much and learned so much about myself. It was hard for me to wrap my head around going back home to Georgia for the holidays for a month and a half since I had been introduced to my new life in Florida for the past three months.

The first week back home from college, I really struggled going back to the old routine of life because I felt like my life was completely different at school and I loved every bit of it. I love home, too, but I felt like my life was on pause or that I had gone back a step because I was where I was before I had gone to college. I realized that I had grown so much with other young adults who were experiencing the same new life as me. I had made so many friends who also experienced being away from home for the first time and many friends who just thrived in our new life.

Since I have grown so much in the past three months with others, I have decided to see how much I will grow by myself at home since I am not around my new friends or new lifestyle anymore. I decided to live more in the moment here in Georgia. When I was in Florida going to school, I think that I did a great job of taking in every moment because I told myself to enjoy it all. I enjoyed the palm trees, all of the beach trips, all of the Universal Studios trips, all of the new friends I made, etc. I enjoyed every single moment, so I am deciding to take in every moment that I have back home. I do not want to be home and wish that I was back at school or think about school too much because then I will be focusing on school instead of focusing on where I am currently at right now, Georgia. I want to be here enjoying my family and my time here with friends because they are excited to have me back home even though they know that I love being at school. I want to say that I "look forward to going back to school" instead of saying that "I miss school."

In addition, I am thankful that I am still able to talk with my friends from college through FaceTime, messages, phone calls, etc. It gives me a little feeling of my new home at college, yet; I also know that they are also having to leave our new home, so they can relate to how I feel about being away from school.

I talked to some young adults from other colleges and some are dealing with it harder being away from school and some prefer to at home rather than at school. I believe that everyone's feelings are valid though because either way being away from college or being at college is a season of change for all students, especially if you live in a different state. Going without the warm Florida weather and palm trees honestly added to me missing school because it was a mental and physical change for me.

I just feel for other college students who do not enjoy school as much as I do because I absolutely love college. I think that all college students should choose a place where they feel the happiest or most successful because school, itself, is already a lot of work. I feel that they should be happy where they are even if it is doing school online from home or even if it means that college is not for them. I just feel that everyone deserves to be happy or learn in any season of their life because college is a lot of change, so students should be at a school where they can feel their best.