As I write this, I have 11 days left in my freshman year of college. By the time this article is published, it'll probably be 5 or 6 days left in my freshman year. I truly have no idea where the time has gone. It feels like just yesterday I was moving into my dorm room and saying tearful goodbyes to my parents.
When I moved into my dorm room at the end of August, the next eight months seemed longer than anything I'd ever experienced. The feeling of being away from home for the first time, especially when you know that the next time you go home it won't really be home anymore, is almost indescribable. I remember laying in my bed the first night and just thinking, "Wow. This is where I live now. This is home now. I'm a college freshman, and this is my life." I was certain that the next eight months would take forever to pass, but they went by in the blink of an eye.
After a few days, college felt like home. I had great friends, classes were starting, and everything was happening too fast to have much time to miss my family. Of course I missed them, but I wasn't as homesick as I thought I'd be. That came back to bite me second semester when we didn't see the sun for over a month, and I ended up having all of my first semester homesickness in second semester. I snuck home for a weekend in January to surprise my family, and after so long not seeing the sun, when the plane broke through above the clouds and I saw blue sky, I started crying. Full on, big tears crying on the plane! The other passengers thought I was crazy, but all I knew was that in that moment, my heart was so full.
College hasn't been what I thought it would be, but I've loved it anyway. This really has been the best time of my life so far, and I can't wait for the next three years. It absolutely blows my mind that my time in Ann Arbor is almost over (for now!) and that I'll never be a freshman again. There's so much I wish I'd done this year (ice skating at Yost, dinner at Frita Batidos, exploring the Arb, and more) but I'm excited for the years to come where I can experience everything I want to and more!
