Come next weekend, I will be back home with my family and friends for Christmas break. It will be my second time coming home since the start of the semester, the first being two weeks ago for Thanksgiving. Many of my friends who attend out-of-state colleges haven't been home at all. This article is for them.
To all you who have made your residence in colder places (Iowa, Washington, Illinois), drier places (Arizona), or even other continents (Australia), you have been greatly missed.
It has been close to a third of a year since the end of summer. We have all been taking classes and developing friendships and participating in countless activities, but our experiences have still been very different. The campuses we call home each foster a unique culture. The friends we surround ourselves with do as well. Some of us are athletes, others diligent scholars, explorers, intramural warriors, devoted friends, or wild youths. Whatever the case may be, we have been growing and developing in various ways.
All of these changes make me wonder what going home will be like. Will our friendships still function if we are different people? How will the dynamics have changed? I don't know.
Alright, so my last statement wasn't entirely true. This exact same situation happened to me last year at Christmas time, so I've been through it once before. I found that my high school friendships seemed to have merely taken a hiatus, and we picked up where we left off, albeit with a lot more stories to tell. It wasn't exactly the same, but I also didn't expect it to be. It's impossible to come back the same person after such a wealth of new experiences, but at the core the familiarity of home still remains, lingering on.
There's an odd belief that I find myself imagining at times, it goes like this; College is just a temporary four-year break from normalcy. After it's over, I'll go back home and things will be the same. My old friends will be back in town and we'll do what we've always done for years. In my head I know this isn't true, but the thought still pops up once in a while. It may be because I attended the same school for thirteen years in a row and I can't wrap my head around change, or it .... well ... that's probably it, actually.
I love seeing my friends reunited back home. Hearing about everyone's fresh experiences and comparing our schools is always entertaining. The inside jokes are familiar and there's a level of understanding that only comes from growing up together and attending each other's last ten birthday parties (or more). But as cool as it would be, I know that we won't all end up in the the same place. Therefore, I want to make the most of the time we do have.
To everyone who gets all the way through this article: Thanks for bearing with my nostalgia. It happens sometimes around the holidays. I really am looking forward to seeing my friends and family and I'm also loving my current school! I hope you have safe travels back home and I'm looking forward to seeing you!
- Brian