Last Thursday my schedule at school was just a normal day for me. I had a particularly brutal three hour physics lab, the rest of my classes, meetings, rehearsal, and homework all thrown in the mix. At my home in New York, however, last Thursday was no ordinary day. It was my younger brother Matthew's 11th birthday.

I think something I took for granted when I was younger was the fact that my family was always together to celebrate our birthdays.

As I've grown older, I have celebrated with friends on the actual day and this year for the first time I went away on my birthday, but for the most part, the birthday celebrations in my life have always been a family affair.

When I think about last Thursday, or the Sunday two weeks ago that was my dad's birthday, I feel a sense of loss and a bit of sadness at not having been there to celebrate with them. It doesn't seem right that all I was able to do was send them a gift and call them to wish them a happy day. Instead of sitting around my dining room table singing to my brother or dad, I was at school doing my own thing.

As I saw pictures and videos of the family celebrations, I couldn't help but smile and then feel a certain twinge in my heart that I wasn't able to physically be there.

It's weird for me to think about how separate my life at school can be from my life at home. The experiences I have here are so contrasted to what is going on with my family and as much I am happy to be a part of my life here, I wish I could somehow transfer myself home sometimes and be part of what is going on there.

My younger brothers are still growing up: one is about to take his drivers' test and will be starting to look at colleges while the other is finishing up his last year in elementary school. My mom and dad both have their own life experiences that they are dealing with.

None of this is said to diminish my experiences at school. I love being at school, I love my friends here, all the things I'm involved in, Villanova is my second home.

Still, I think that being away from home for these two birthdays has just brought to my attention how different life is now that I'm away at school.

I don't get see my mom, dad, and brothers every day, I only see them a few times a year. I have a whole other life at school, a whole other family here, and there's something beautiful about that, yet it also makes me nostalgic for my family back in New York.

It's all a part of life and I'm grateful for all that is happening in my life right now. Yet I want to remind anyone reading this and to remind myself that it's okay to miss your family, and if these feelings come up around birthdays as they did for me, maybe it's just a chance for us to reach out to our family and remind them how much we love them.

Seeing the birthday celebrations from afar, I felt such a sense of gratitude for how my parents raised me.

My parents taught me what it means to celebrate a person, that family comes first and foremost, and that when we come together as one, we are most powerful.

I can only hope the lessons I've learned back home in New York are ones that I extend into my daily life at school.

So, if you're reading this, family, thank you for all you've done. And if you're part of my second family at school, thank you for being part of such a formative period of my life.

Make the birthdays count, readers, wherever they may be celebrated.

Talk soon,

Sam