Returning to college after a break has got to be one of the more bittersweet feelings I have experienced in my sheltered, suburban life. While I excitedly anticipate the return to the collegiate atmosphere and all the debauchery associated, there is something to be said for sleeping past noon and being awakened by a much furrier and animated alarm clock. Both home and school have their merits and a balance of the two is, for me at least, necessary for maintaining sanity.

I would consider my greatest blessing in life to be the family I was born into. Not in the silver spoon so far up my ass everything tastes like metal way, but more in the hey I kinda like these people I have to spend my life with way. I thought I was lucky when my freshman roommate was a great match, and I only had to live with him for two semesters! No matter where you are it is vital to have a strong, supportive group around you. If you have been as lucky as I, hold dear to what you were given for it is truly invaluable.

St. Lawrence has certainly become a home away from home over the last two and a half years, but nothing (apart from a house of your own) can ever truly replace where you were born and raised. At this point of my life (over a year from graduation, no plans for the future, and what some (who are absolutely not invited inside my pillow fort) might call a lack of maturity, a stable, welcoming home is an asset I feel increasingly grateful to have. There is no doubt that I will cherish the memories made and destroyed at college, but those memories more permanently emblazoned in my mind will be the Friends episodes watched with my mom, the chess matches played with my dad, the perpetual corruption of my brothers, and of course absolutely anything I've ever done with my dog.