For some of us, where we go to college is not the same place as we get to call home. We say goodbye to our family and friends and pack up all of our belongings and we take the risk to move miles away from where we grew up for a fresh start. The first time we leave home we feel like we have made the wrong decision and want to tell our parents to turn the car around, but as time goes on we realize what a great decision leaving home was. We have learned to live on our own, go to class, do our own laundry and manage our time responsibly. After awhile we finally get over the horrible feeling of being homesick and missing our family and we consider the new friends we have made to fill that empty spot in our lives and be our "home away from home " family.
As soon as we realize how great our new life is, we are hit with a dilemma. It's the week of Thanksgiving break and it's time to head back home for a week to be spent in our old lives. Don't get me wrong, were all super excited to get to see our family and friends and spend time with them but were also nervous about how different it is going to feel to be at home. We spend that week living in the past and hanging out with old high school friends and catching up with family and relatives at the Thanksgiving dinner table. The time then comes to say goodbye to everyone we had seen and get back on the plane to head back to school. Once we are back and settled into our routine we are hit with the feels. The homesick feels. Being home for a week made us feel so great and it felt so normal to be back living our old lives. For a week we forgot about what we had left at school and the new friendships and memories we had made.
The trip to our hometown made us recognize truly how much our lives had changed since leaving home. Being home again reminded us of all the unique qualities that made home, home. Waking up on a Saturday morning to pancakes instead of being in a dorm room, requesting your favorite home cooked meals instead of having to eat the campus food and of course sleeping in our comfy queen sized bed.
All of these qualities are the reasoning behind why leaving home never gets easier. We never realized all of the little things that made us love home so much until we were back at school miles away missing them. Once we are back we notice how much we miss all of the little perks of being home which makes us homesick again.
As life goes on we get back into our routine away from home and life begins to feel normal again. The only difference is now we know that every time we head home for a break it will be just as hard to leave home as it was the first time. We know that leaving our hometown and family will never get easier because it is where we grew up and what we know will always be there for us in the end. However, I believe as time goes on our "home away from home" will start to feel like our real home and soon it will be hard for us to leave it. We will make it into our new home with the experiences and friends we have created in it and filled our lives with.
