College is hard. There is no lie about it. It’s stressful, tiring, and draining, emotionally and mentally. And every once in awhile we college kids need to go home. We need to go home just to keep our sanity in tact.

Last weekend was the first time I had willingly gone home and it not having been a break. First semester I went nine straight weeks of school without visiting home. And while I enjoyed spending weekends with my new friends at school, I was worn out by the time Thanksgiving came.

Now one month into the semester and I was packing up for a weekend home. It gave me something to look forward to when my parents dropped me off after break. It was also nice to have a definitive date- one when I would be returning home. Four weeks wasn’t so bad.

Going home once or twice a semester is something every college student needs to do. Sleeping in your own bed in the peace in quiet and not having to hear drunk people running up and down the hall at 4 a.m. is a luxury. Getting to cuddle with my cat at night was the pinnacle of my weekend (sorry mom and dad). One night I slept for almost eleven hours completely straight through. That is almost completely unheard of when living in a dorm.

Finally, getting to take a shower without shower shoes. It was a blessing to take a warm shower that wasn’t in a box with terrible lighting and other people's hair on the walls.

The home cooked meals were superb. It was amazing that I could have a meal that I enjoyed and not be disappointed by what the dining hall was trying to feed me. My mom’s blueberry pancakes for breakfast and lamb for dinner were more than I could have imagined on my two days home. It made me sad to go back to the bland food served to us at Delaware.

Just having time to myself, seeing my parents and grandma, watching TV, and talking around the dinner table. This is obviously not something that I get to do everyday anymore, so it was so nice to be able to do that.

I spent time with just my cat. We got to play together and lay on the couch together and relax. I followed her around everywhere, and probably annoyed her to the point where she wished I would go back to school already. It was just the little things that I don’t get to participate in and that I miss when I’m at school.

Any college kid needs time in the middle of the semester to go home and decompress. It’s a necessity that must be taken. So, if you’re in college and overly stressed out, take some time off and go home for a weekend. It will be better for you than one might think.