Homesick. It's a word that every teenager thought they knew the meaning of, until they got to college. But the word doesn't necessarily mean the same for everyone. For some, it may mean exactly how it sounds. The never-ending desire to be home, in your own town, in your own bed, cuddling with your dog, using your own shower and not having to share a space with a complete stranger.

The roommate situation is different for everyone, but for most, in the beginning, it involves a lot of awkward good mornings and good nights. Of course, those with a roommate become masters of getting dressed without being seen and tiptoeing to the bathroom in the morning with the fear of waking them up. It's the feeling of living in a room alone for your whole life and then having to fit everything you own into one side of a small, hot room that becomes unbearable. For others, however, it isn't the feeling of being away from home that’s the hard part. It is the feeling of being in a place where you don't know anyone, and, for the first time, being solely responsible for yourself. It is the feeling of not having your mother there to help you when the going gets rough, and not having your friends there to help you through the hard moments, especially since there are a lot of hard moments.

That is one of the hardest parts: saying goodbye to your best friends. The people you grew up with, the ones who stayed by your side through your awkward years when you loved Disney Channel and wore sparkles every day. You have gone through everything together. You have dealt with the same unbearable teachers, done school work together since you were little, been through the best and worst that your town has gone through and dealt with tragedy and loss together. There's the girl that started out as another face in the crowd in first grade, and ended up as one of your best friends, your class president, and the most successful of all people you have ever seen. There's the one girl, the one who has been there since the beginning. The one who ditched her "cooler" friends and hung out with you because she needed a break from that world. The one who always texted you and asked for the homework, but you were happy to give it to her because you knew that one day you wouldn't have the chance anymore. The girl that stuck by you through every heartbreak, and the one who didn't care what kind of person everyone else saw you as, because she knew the real you. There's the little girl who you met in American Eagle, the one that’s a grade below you, who at first glance, thought you were a completely different person than you are.

But she's also the one who taught you that first impressions are almost never correct. She has looked up to you throughout the past three years and surprisingly, even though she is younger, you look up to her. She has been the only one who really understands you, the only one who you can call at three in the morning and will answer. She is the one who first taught you what it's like to be a role model and a best friend. And then there's the girl who you have seen roaming the halls for all of middle school, but never even knew the impact she would have. She is your best friend. The one who is brutally honest with you only because she says what you need to hear and not what you want to hear. It is her that keeps you going through everything, the one that makes your face light up when you see her, that kind of best friend.

It is the moment that you have to say goodbye to these people, when the feeling of "homesick" becomes real. It is going to basketball games, soccer games and school events without them, that hits you hard. It is the moment when you have to hug them for the last time, knowing that they are leaving and making new memories that don't involve you. However, it is also the memories that you have shared, that will get you through the months you have to face without them. Yes, they won't be there to share these new moments with you, but that doesn't mean that you cannot enjoy them.

You will meet new people and although they may never touch you and impact you in the way your friends from home have, they will still be very important people in your life. There is always going to be a place that you all get to go back to and you will always all call the same place home. But you all deserve to have new adventures. Maybe the class president will end up as the actual president one day, and maybe your two best friends from middle school will end up getting married. Maybe your three best friends will end up as the most successful engineers and you will find out who you are. These are all things that cannot be achieved by staying at home.

So, when you are sitting in your dorm room crying on the phone with your mom, asking her to bring you home, remember this: Good things take time, and all new adventures have obstacles you must get over. But it will get better. Dreams do not come true in one day, but if you stick it out, they will come true. I promise you that.