Going to college out of state, or even just far away from home, takes a lot of adjustments. You live on your own, are surrounded only by people around your age, and are 100% responsible for yourself. I never realized how tough leaving home would be until I had been away for almost two years.

I am a sophomore in college, so I have been away for almost two years, not including breaks. I was never one to get really homesick before. I have been on long vacations, even international ones, without my family and I was fine. I missed them a lot, but I never really was one to cry and beg to come home. But actually, living semi-permanently away from my family is a lot harder than I expected.

They say that "you never know what you have until it's gone." They're right. There's so many things I took for granted when I was living full time at home. My mom's home-cooked meals, long talks about sports with my dad, and hanging out 24/7 with my built in best friends, my brothers. I find myself wishing I could just go hang in my mom's bed with her and chat, or go on random drives with no destination with my brothers. I miss playing sports and having my dad coach, and talking about previous tournaments and games with him on the rides to and from it. There's so much I never thought I'd miss so much, but here I am wishing I was still in high school, always surrounded by my amazing, loving family.

The silver lining in all of this, though, is that now when I am home, I make sure to take everything that I can get. I get super excited about family dinners, movie nights with the whole family, and just sleeping in the same house and all waking up together. I spend as much time with them as possible. It's weird to say, but I definitely got closer with all of my family members after I left for college. But I wouldn't trade my relationships with them for the world!