The whole apartment just feels quiet. I took two airplanes to get here and sit on my bare mattress and wait for the semester to start. Tick tock. The snow is keeping me in this apartment. I would love to get things started right, make a trek down to Broad Ripple or head to the local Meijer and buy some of the essentials, but it is just too cold. Little old Floridian me can’t take it.

So, I’m sitting in my bed, which takes up most of my room, waiting for winter to end and thinking about all the things that I miss about Florida. I miss walking into Publix on a nice winter day and having all the friendly cashiers, some of which I recognize, some of which I don’t, wave at me and welcome me. I miss walking down the street from my house past the Sunoco and the Subway to the local YMCA where I could play pick up basketball for hours on end.

I miss the paradox of Chick-Fil-A, always wanting it on Sunday when I can’t have it. The lemonade and the chicken nuggets are so good. I even miss settling for Wendy’s when we couldn’t get Chick-Fil-A.

Hell, I miss the things people hate about Florida. I miss driving on I-4, the most dangerous road in the nation, where people freak out and forget how to drive for hours at a time. I miss the random traffic jams in the morning and the dead roads in the nighttime.

I miss my real bed and the four thick blankets that rest on top of it. I miss my closet in Lakeland, that isn’t filled with a broken IKEA bed frame. I miss my parents’ house and all the sunshine that flows through the windows there. I miss them, my family. I miss talking with each and every last one of them from cousins asking about my future plans to my aunts and uncles asking how I’ve been. I miss my girlfriend and how comfortable we feel in each others’ arms. I miss feeling her voice there next to me.

All of this I miss, but I realize that I must move on for now because it’s all just waiting for me to finish up this semester. Lakeland isn’t gonna blow up anytime soon. This is just a reprieve. This semester is going to be full of new, wonderful people who I will miss when I come back to Lakeland. Isn’t it funny how that works, how I always seem to long for what I can’t have? How I am constantly trading one thing for another, unsure of what I really want? Doesn’t that just split your sides?

I wish I could just take everyone I enjoy and lead them to some place in the desert (I don’t know why the desert) and just have them all there with me. A little town filled with all the people I love. It’s so hard missing some people in one place and some other people in another place. I miss everyone stuck in this apartment, waiting for the snow to melt.