When I arrived to school last August, I remember commenting on how bare the walls of my dorm room were. They looked almost institutional; old tile floors, terrible fluorescent lighting, pink brick walls, and built-in bunk beds furnished my new home. My roommate was not going to move in for another week, so at first I had to live in the blank space by myself. It felt like the farthest thing from a home, and I longed for the room to have that "homey" feeling.

Fast forward almost nine months and the once bare room is unrecognizable. Pictures of all shapes and sizes cover the walls and a tapestry hides a large portion of the god-awful pink bricks. Handmade signs and posters display inside jokes throughout the room, and there are three Exit signs floating around from various locations. Our homemade pallet couch sits next to the Keurig that is dying from overuse, and the plants that we have accumulated take up both windowsills. The room has dozens of mementos, each of which represents a memory of the past several months. We would welcome visitors to our "humble abode" upon their arrival to our little home.

I didn't realize how quickly a place could become a home. This little campus has gone from strange and unfamiliar to comforting and natural in less than a year. We've found the best fishing spots, established our favorite local diner, and know where to get the cheapest gas. We can provide a story for dozens of locations on campus; "Remember when we climbed that water tower?" or, "Remember when we went to go pat the cows at one in the morning?"

I didn't realize how "homey" our 15' by 15' piece of real estate had gotten until we started packing everything up to move back home. Our original excitement to go home quickly diminished as we realized how hard it was to say goodbye to the past year. Every decoration that we packed away had a story that we needed to relive (this elongated the packing process immensely). We recollected the memories of friends made, drunken mistakes, and more laughs than we could count.

College is a strange place. I would be lying if I said I didn't have my fair share of mental breakdowns and thoughts of dropping out throughout the past year, but for every negative memory I've had a dozen positive ones. I've been fortunate enough to become close to such an amazing group of people in a very short time, and I cannot be more thankful for them.

I'm coming for you, junior year!