Coming home from your freshman year is exciting, but also terrible. You have to say goodbye to new friends, your first ever college roommate and worst of all your freedom. However, you get to say hello to the beautiful faces that you missed so much while you were away. It's important to keep your cool and be patient when returning to your old life, but also remember the memories you made during your first year and continue to grow into the person college is making you. Here's a list of the top ten things to remember coming home from freshman year.
1. Your parents are not smothering you, they just missed you
This is the most difficult part of returning home for the summer. Mom and dad all of a sudden want to spend every waking moment with you. Family dinner, family breakfast, family game night, and in the case of the oldest siblings out there, the designated babysitter, and/or house cleaner has now returned. Odds are, your parents are taking advantage of you being home simply because they missed your presence in the house and realized how much they should appreciate your help. However, it can sometimes be misconstrued for being overbearing and over the top.
2. Balancing old and new friends
In many cases, you will meet people at school that live in your area, or you will meet people that are worth visiting. Make time for them, but make time for your friends at home as well. It is important to keep the bonds that you have shared with these people while you are forming new bonds. Also, make sure to not be that person that constantly talks about your new friends with your old friends and vice versa. Make sure to connect the two in a way that shows both groups how much they mean to you.
3. Respecting the curfew
You are no longer in a dorm. I repeat, you are no longer in a dorm surrounded by other eighteen year olds that want to be up as late as you do. Respect that your family may still be going to work and school in the morning, and do not waltz through the door at two o'clock in the morning, making your dog bark like crazy and your alarm go of. (I may be speaking from experience here… mom and dad do not like that). They may give you a curfew, which is something many college students do not foresee. Respect it. It is to keep you safe, not to make your life boring and miserable.
4. Respecting the home
Again, you are no longer in a dorm with other eighteen year olds. Clean up after yourself, make your bed and do your laundry. Odds are, your parents do not want your laundry basket overflowing in the corner of your room for the whole summer, so keep up with your chores and respect that your family is not a group of young adults who do not mind the three week pile up of laundry and dishes.
5. You have not been replaced or displaced
Your siblings and your parents have kept going with their routines while you were away at school. (What? You mean the world did not freeze without me there?!). No, it did not. They have a system that you will be joining into, so make sure you respect the system but also keep in mind that it will take time to assimilate back into their routine, but they love you and you all need to be patient. For me personally, my mom and I are having trouble getting back into a routine that suits us both. My mom even got rid of my bed so now I do not only share a room, but a bed with my twelve year old sister, and from what I have heard going around we are not the only ones! It takes time, but it will be easier every day.
6. Find a job
It is not cute to complain about how broke you are when you no longer live in a dorm. Come to think of it, it was not cute then either! Businesses love college students because we work for cheap (being desperate for cash makes us more marketable), and also we usually have more experience than high schoolers. Take advantage of this and start applying to jobs as soon as possible!
7. Get in shape
Working out is both fun and time consuming. Going from a college with many clubs and constant activities to being home with no homework to do is going to be hard. You will be relieved that you no longer have school work, but anxious with nothing to do on your days off. There are summer gym memberships, so spend some time taking care of your body and working off the infamous freshman fifteen!
8. Keep up with your school hobbies
You have definitely changed over the past year. Make sure you stick with the positive changes you have been making even though your environment is not the same, and possibly not as stimulating. Although you are no longer surrounded by ambitious students that share your passions in clubs or people to study with in class, keep up with whatever hobbies you picked up on. If you did a lot of community service during the school year, find some friends to do it with at home. Keep striving to be the best you. If you grew out of old habits during the school year, do not fall back into them at home!
9. Practice driving
You have lived on campus for months now, and many schools do not allow freshmen to drive. Just remember to take it slow at first and make sure you are prepared to be safely back on the road. Drive with mom or dad a few times before you take the wheel by yourself!
10. Take summer classes
Last, but not least, take summer classes. Make use of the three full months of summer you get as a college student and get some credits out of the way. Summer classes are usually easier to pass (being as the teacher probably wants to be there less than the students). Also, you will have a smaller course load so you can get some classes out of the way that would normally be too time consuming!
