Home is where your family is. Leaving it means you are leaving comfort. You cannot wait to leave but once you’re gone; you’ll miss your dog; you’ll miss the way your house smells, you’ll miss the smell of home cooked meals, you’ll miss Sunday's with your family, you’ll miss the way your parents would yell your name and wait for you to walk out of your room, you’ll miss your bathtub, you’ll miss the feeling of sitting on your couch wrapped up in a blanket, you’ll miss it all. You don’t realize what comfort means to you until you’re away from it.
Living far away at a young age is hard. You’ll have mental breakdowns anytime you see a video about families being together. Your heart will break every time you see a dog because you wish you could pet yours. Everyone will talk about how college is the time of their lives, but they forget to mention how hard it is to see photos of your family, and you’re not in them. No one talks about how many times you cry after you hang up the phone with your family or friend. Everyone thinks you’re having a blast but that’s because Instagram doesn’t show you the days where you’re lying in your dorm/apartment crying because you wish you were home. They don’t show the dwindling friendships that fade with distance. You don’t Snapchat the days that you lay in bed instead of going out because you can’t mentally pull yourself together. It’s a great experience but it comes with so many obstacles.
Everything around you constantly reminds you of home. You have a countdown running of when you get to sleep in your own bed and feel comfort again. All of it starts to overwhelm you, but it also makes you a better person.
Leaving home makes you realize you have something to miss. It becomes clear that even though your mom made you crazy at home, just to wake up and see her sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee would be better than Christmas. To think that hearing your sibling make fun of you, or hearing your dad's oddly loud footsteps would bring you happiness is strange.
Leaving home makes you stronger emotionally, but overall it makes you appreciative. You never realize how beautiful it is to have so many people that care about you or how important comfort is until you leave. Although it is miserable to miss people more than you can control, your home will always be your home no matter how far away you are.
