The first summer back from college is a weird experience. Sure you’ve come home a couple times during the school year and spent the month duration of winter break here, but it’s been awhile since you’ve spent this much time at home.

The first thing you’ll notice is that things feel different. You’ll move back into your bedroom and it’ll feel weird that you won’t hold back to unpack anything. You’ll be in this room for the next 3 months so all the clothing can go back into the closet; you won’t be living out of a suitcase.

Next will be learning how to navigate your home town again. You’ve probably driven a few times around town while home but now you’ll have to recall all the small streets that make great short cuts and all the pot holes and bubbles in the road that you’ve lost your natural instinct to weave out of the way of.

Then you’ll start running into people you haven’t seen in awhile. Maybe not necessarily a person you were ever really close with, but someone who you used to know, and kinda knew what was going on in their lives. You knew they did/didn’t go away for school, but since then you have no idea what events or accomplishments they’ve gone through. You wonder what kind of life they’re leading and if they wonder about yours the same way.

After that you’ll slowly start catching up with your family, and the questions will pour in faster than any car you’ve ever driven. What’s your major? How was your last semester? What were your grades? You got a boyfriend? You going back? Literally you won’t remember a time you didn’t have one of your aunts asking you something along those lines.

Then right when things start to feel normal you’ll start to feel homesick. Obviously you’re technically “home”, but this isn’t really home anymore. Home’s the closet of a dorm that smells like microwaved pop tarts and wet towels that you went to bed in every night. It’s the place that you shared a bathroom with 12 other girls and fought over the private shower with every moring. It’s the place that you pay way too much for to learn a few things from.

You start missing the independence and the life you used to have with all your friends in a world that no one back home was a part of. That’s probably the hardest part about it. No matter how many stories you tell someone they can’t really understand it all because they weren’t there. You miss the people who just knew who you were telling a story about because they lived down the hall from them or had an accounting class with them.

After you get passed missing everyone you’ll find yourself packing up the car and getting ready to head off back down to school. The summer will fly by and before you know it you’ll be back slumming it in the common room with all your gals eating less than satisfactory chicken tenders and fries, but you’ll be home.