When you're away at school, things can be very isolating. Your friends may be far away, your family even farther, and without any kind of transportation, for you to easily access, you may be locked on campus.
At the same time, though, much of what you used to have ended up getting replaced. Your friends from home are gone, but new friends here and now have popped up. You may only see your family every once in a while, but that may be for the best. So what, you don't have a car? There's plenty to do on campus!
While this isn't the case for everyone everywhere, often times people will grow to live on their campus as if it were a new town or a new city they have moved to, their dorm or living environment being a second home for them or even their primary. But is it really? Is it okay to call college home?
I've been wondering that myself a lot lately. During the first few semesters of college it never really dawned on me the ramifications of referring to my little dorm room as home. The way I saw it was that it was where I was living so that was, as far as I realized, the place I called home.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that does this. In fact, I know I'm not the only one that does this. When I talk to my friends on campus and we're going our separate ways we always say that we're just going home and we'll see each other tomorrow. It really wasn't a big deal. I mean, it wasn't at first.
I had two roommates last year, the three of us in a triple. Both of them lived within a two-hour drive of the school. I live over 4 hours from the school. Because they were so close to home, they would often go home for weekends, holidays, etc., usually leaving me behind and rarely ever leaving the room empty. Whenever they came back I would ask them how home was, what they did when they were home, and how everyone back home was doing.
After a few times of doing this, however, I began to realize, "This isn't home to them, and it really isn't to me either." The old adage "Home is where the heart is" is extremely cliche but there's really nothing more fitting. A small dorm room on a college campus has nothing on the house you grew up in and the people you lived with for all of those years. It's a totally different thing and to refer to them by similar names, let alone the same name, is an injustice to the former and overstatement of the latter.
Home isn't just the building that makes up the house. It's the pets that you leave behind and always wish you can bring with you. It's the memories made there that can never transfer to a new place. It's the people around you, the familiar faces you've seen for most of your life. It's the family that raised you, made you who you are, and gave you those things you look back on to make that place home. College, yeah, it's a good little reprieve from all of that, especially when you need a break from it, but don't call it home.
