Being away at college is a great experience, but everyone gets tired of being away from home. It's completely normal to miss your parents and friends. So many college students count down the days until the next break, so they can go home and eat a home cooked meal (or get their parents to pay for eating out) ,not have to go to class, and not write an endless amount of papers. But sometimes being home isn't an amazing as you think it will be when you're at college.
The first few days are great. Being in your own bed, not paying for food and not having to wear shower shoes. You get to see your friends that you haven't seen in months. You get to catch up on all the crazy adventures that they have had while all of you have been away at college. You get to make new memories with old friends and catching up on sleep is amazing.
But after a while the novelty of being home again wears off. You realize that while you were off making new friends and starting this fantastic new adventure, everyone else you left behind kept living too. Your friends that you graduated with made new friends at their colleges, just like you did. Your parents got into a new routine. Your siblings got taller and older. All while you weren't around to watch. It's hard coming back home and trying to jump back into a normal routine when there are so many things that you have missed out on. Everyone has changed so much, just like you have. You have to get to know them again while they try to get to know you. It can be hard. Really hard.
And once things finally start to get back to normal, it is time to say goodbye to everyone. The goodbyes were hard the first time back in August, and they are still just as hard. You want to go back to school because you miss your friends there, but you just got used to being home. You have a routine down and you've finally caught up on everything you missed. You got involved in everyone's lives, and you do not feel like an outsider anymore. It finally feels like home again. But now you have to say goodbye. Again. It hurts and it's hard, because now you don't want to leave.
Going back and forth from college to home is difficult. Just as you get used to one place, it's time to go back to the other. It's confusing to try and process the emotions. I'm not anywhere close to figuring all of this out. I'm not even sure there is a "right" way to handle this. Even though navigating going back and forth between two completely different worlds is incredibly difficult, it is completely worth it.
