Coming home for break, I was obviously excited to finally reunite with the homies that I'd missed the most. With this excitement, however, was mixed an unwelcome anxiety. Despite how many times I told myself everything would be fine and normal and just the way it used to be, I couldn't fight that little nagging feeling of worry. What if my friends didn't like me anymore? What if I had changed more than I thought? What if they had changed more than I thought? My mind went through an endless amount of possibilities -- each one more horrifying than the next. I prepared myself for the worst, yet still somehow managing to be optimistic, hoping we'd share smiles and laughs and endless stories.
The time finally came when it was time to go home and reunite with my high school friends. I was delighted to find that while my friends had admittedly changed in terms of the friends they had made, the stories they had to tell, and the milestones that they had come upon, they were still exactly the same goofy weirdos that I had grown to love so much.
After my exhausting first semester complete with various illnesses including but not limited to mononucleosis and bronchitis, a less than successful first midterm examination, and other various speed bumps, I was so incredibly happy to be able to come home and simply lie down on my attic couch with the friends I'd missed so much. They serve as a reminder that no matter how crazy college life can be, my life at home is still my life at home. No matter how many things change, how many boys come and go, how many friendships are tentatively and temporarily made and forgotten, my hometown friends will always be there for me, genuinely wanting to know about my life's new adventures and personally invested in my well being.
And so, to my hometown honeys who I love so much, I'd like to say thank you. Thank you for the memories we've made and those that are yet to come. In a time when our whole lives are changing and we're becoming something resembling real-life functioning people, I feel so lucky to have such friends that make me feel so completely comfortable in being myself. Whether we're FaceTiming when we're 626 miles apart or roaming the streets of Chicago when we're all back at it in the big bad Western suburbs, thank you for reminding me that in the end, everything will be okay. I think I've come to find that what they say is really true -- you don't know what you've got until it's gone (but I'd modify that saying just a little bit).
I have always known how blessed I was to have found such amazing people in my life, but going away to college made me appreciate it so much more. I am so thankful to have people that know me inside and out.
Stay weird, my friends. Love now and always.
