I certainly don't speak for everybody but I know I speak for some when I say coming home from college creates a weird phenomenon of hometown blues. That small town you grew up in just doesn't feel the same as it did before. Driving past the football stadium no longer gives you that feeling of joy it once did, in fact it doesn't even give you the feeling of nostalgia. Your high school now looks like a prison, the community pool is now hell, and the local grocery store? Forget it. You're driving 30 minutes to the nearest Walmart just to avoid seeing people you know.

College is the place where you thrive, where people don't know you from Adam. You're a different person at college than in your hometown, and for some reason, you like the college version better. Maybe it's because there's no 12-year reputation to uphold. Or perhaps you reinvented your own personality wheel when your left. But one thing is certain, every winter and summer break requires you to either revert back to the hometown version or hide in the sanctuary that is your home. And if we're being honest, a lot of us hometown blues folks don't get much sun.

The people who were once your inseparable friend circle are now the people you hope to avoid. After all, once you go off to college, you end up realizing you were only "friends" because you saw each other for seven hours, five days a week. These people don't know the college you, they only remember the person who thought making fun of others and the local carnival as the main sources of fun. You don't want to have to resume that god awful role; so you avoid them to evade the possibility of your new self clashing with theirs.

When you come home from college you continue reminiscing of the previous semester, wishing you could go back, and praying that your college friends live close enough for a visit (because let's be honest, they are a much needed escape). You end up missing school more than you thought you would. You even start to miss going to classes because anything is better than taking your fifth walk around the block or vacuuming for the third time this week. Your hometown just can't compete with the environment you're missing. I'll even be honest when saying, I go to a relatively small state school in the podunkiest little town and there are still more things do to and more fun to be had than there is in my hometown during summer.

So if you're out there feeling the hometown blues, just remember it doesn't last forever. Help is coming. School starts again soon.