No one likes to emphasize the bad stuff. When talking about college, people always tell you how much fun you're going to have, and how much studying you'll have to do and how much responsibility you will have now that you will be living on your own, but they don't seriously tell you how difficult it is being away from home.

I go to school only 45 minutes away from where I grew up; this is both a blessing and a curse. I am able to drive home after classes for a doctors appointment or dinner at home (when I just can't take the dining hall food anymore), and on the other side, my parents can come up for lunch downtown, and my friends can come see me when we just can't stand to be apart for another second. Yet all of this feels like a tease.

No matter how long the drive is, distance is still distance. It makes me crazy that some days it's just not logical to drive home for the afternoon because I miss my mom, or that my friends from home can't just live in Athens with me. Something else that people forget to mention is that life doesn't stop because you're gone. Your friends are still living their lives in your hometown, your siblings are still getting older without you there to witness it, and somehow your parents are getting along just fine without having you "in need" of their parenting.

These feelings of homesickness aren't always there; although all the crazy, exciting things are happening at home, you are going through crazy exciting things of your own. There's the daily debate of whether you're going to get up and go to that one class you just can't stand, or the dispute with your roommate whether or not the midnight milkshake run (again) is a good idea, or the suspense of walking into your favorite hall every day hoping it's mac n' cheese day (and when it finally is you will call your mom and tell her about your mini triumph).

Sometimes those realizations of homesickness don't even resonate until you go home for Mom's birthday and there's a pet bunny in the kitchen whom you've never met and it hits you that you're missing a lot being so away from your family on a daily basis.

(actual picture of the Walters Family's new bunny, staged by Mom)

It's important to remember that these feelings are normal, and we are all having them. Although it is hard, and sometimes seemingly impossible, to be away from everything you've ever known, it's such a fulfilling experience. Once you make it through your little milestones, like grocery shopping by yourself or changing your sheets without someone reminding you to do it, you realize that your parents have done their job and this is your chance to show them what a (mostly) well-rounded adult they have raised.

So when homesickness comes to bite you, just be thankful for the great experiences college is giving you, and the second home you have in your wonderful college town.