The struggle of being home for winter break is real.

It is awesome to be home with family and to spend time with my friends.

The thing is, home isn't a home anymore. It's more of a home base.

The first week of being home is confusing.

I love being able to relax and spend time in my house, but I also don't feel complete. I have my room all to myself, which is nice, but the quietness is strange. Too strange.

My friends back home are not out of school yet, so that leaves me time to chill at home, waiting for my friends to finish up finals.

Within a couple days, I get all settled in and get into a rhythm of staying up late and sleeping in late.

I miss following a routine. No alarms being set off or the noise of people running in and out of the bathroom.

One thing I am not sad about is the cafeteria food. At home, I get to cook and eat as healthy as I possibly want and it feels so good.

Finally, my friends finish up school but to be honest, I don’t have many friends that I genuinely want to hang out with. A select few, but that's all I need.

I enjoy hanging out with my friends but I know that I am not 100 percent me. A part of me is still in Oregon wanting to play late night ping pong.

While home, I saw on Snapchat all the snow falling at school and in Salem. Every time I saw a friend playing in snow, it made me want to jump in the car and join, but I knew I couldn't do that for another 25 days

People think that they can combine their home life to their school life. The answer is, there is no possible way of doing it.

At each home, you have special bonds with different people.

At home, I have the friends I grew up with. Friends that knew my awkward middle school stages. The people who I graduated with.

At Corban, I have friends that I have a completely different relationships with. They don't know my childhood, but they know me as an adult. We conquered classes together, bonded over sectionals and attended school events together.

There are a few friends that I have become close to. They have supported me and cheered me on. They celebrated with me when I passed all my classes, and gave me a loving goodbye when I left for winter break. We have had late night talks and talked about how to conquer the adult life together.

So I am here, in California, missing my Corban family. I am excited to celebrate Christmas with my parents and extended relatives. But Oregon, I miss you and your cold weather. I miss all the green and abundance of trees. I can not wait to be back in the Beaver state. See you soon Corban.