As finals end, students are packing up their cars and heading home for the holidays. When you see that sign welcoming you back to your hometown, you start to notice things feeling different than they did in high school.
You dread running into acquaintances.
No matter how well you got along with your former classmates or how great life/school is going, everyone wants to avoid the same boring conversation topics that inevitably arise: How are classes, who are you dating, where are you working, etc. Chances are, you have each other on Facebook and you both already know the answers to these questions but you have no clue what else to say. What used to be a simple trip to Wal-Mart for milk has become a minefield of possible interactions.
Everything is blanketed by nostalgia.
Now that you've endured the horror that is the last two weeks of a semester, you start to romanticize how easy high school was. Remember the one page tests? Simple projects? When a C felt like a bad grade, not a trophy gleaming just past the finish line you've been limping towards? Ahh, the good old days.
Everything is either tiny or huge.
Depending on the size of your hometown and college town, this changes. Personally, I come from a pretty small place with no Target, Chic-fil-a, or Big Lots. So when I go home, I feel cramped and itching to be in a place with bigger stores and later hours. But if you go to a small school and you're from a bonafide city, the chances are endless! Craving Indian food at three in the morning? No problem!
You remember how much you missed your family.
There's something to be said about being a house full of love and space. After being cramped in a dorm room for months, anything feels better. Food has more flavor, time ticks a bit slower, and everything feels a little nicer. Plus, you can do all the laundry you want without worrying about quarters! Talk about a perk.
You remember how much you love being on your own.
After a few days, your parents might start side-eyeing your new habits. On more than one occasion, I've been heading out to grab food or run a quick errand and my mom asks, "Rachel, it is after 8 pm. Where do you need to be?". At school, we can run our own schedule, and it's frustrating to suddenly have it questioned. If I'm old enough to live alone, I'm old enough to grab some fast food before hunkering down with Netflix for the night.
You wonder how you ever made it through high school with only two weeks off.
Colleges get an average of a month off for winter break. High school students only have half of that! It's hard to imagine recuperating and preparing for the upcoming semester with any less than four weeks of homework-less bliss.
When January rolls around, you're counting the days until you go back.
You're bored. You miss your friends. And you're starting to remember why you chose a college out of town in the first place. So you start thinking about packing, when you're going to exchange gifts with your friends, and how great it is to have a coffee bar within walking distance.
