With the holiday season just beginning, the season of seeing everyone you have ever known also begins. Every time I come back into town, I am excited to see all of my family and close friends, but I somehow always seem to have a pit in my stomach at the same time. There's something about going to the mall (which I always visit first) and having to be in full glam because you don't know who you will come across. Your middle school teacher? Maybe. That girl you feuded with in high school? Most likely. Your ex-boyfriend and his entire family? 1000%.
Why can't I roam the streets I used to frequent looking how I want? That is, in an XL t-shirt and norts, obviously.
I have to rehearse my elevator speech for all the questions. I wish I could give just give out a pamphlet to people. What I am doing currently, what I'm doing with the future, how my parents are, how my sister is liking college, when did I get into town, the list goes on. Before I know it, I'm standing in the middle of Publix holding the tampons I came to get and talking for 30 minutes with a neighbor from my childhood home about the cat they used to have.
Don't get me wrong, I love seeing people I haven't seen in months or even years, but sometimes it gets a little overwhelming. Am I the only one that struggles with this limbo of being in between college and high school when they visit home? I find myself falling into these old habits every time I breathe the hometown air. Ladies, if you feel the same, I guess all we can do is get together with our high school besties and drink to our younger selves.