Your course load has taken a toll
If you’re like the majority of college students, dead week and finals week is filled with tests, projects and papers. It’s been a rough semester and you’re tired. For the lucky few, they’ll be done within the early days, so they can get home. #blessed
Chances are, you’ve gotten too little sleep and have gotten way too many assignments this semester. Coffee has been your best friend and your actual best friends have had their own struggles. You’ll probably only get to see them if you have a study date together. You spend your nights in the library and your days trying to convince your teachers to raise your grades. #fail
Your bed is calling your name
When you finally get home, you get to fall into the cloud that you call your bed. This past year has been spent in a small, cramped room and as much as you love that twin-sized bed, nothing quite compares to being in your bed at home. Pictures and trophies from high school, which make you nostalgic and comforted, surround it. For some reason, you always sleep better in your room from home. It could be the freshly washed sheets that your mom did for you before you got home or cuddling with your dog in the morning, but your bed at home holds a special place in your heart.
Pet separation anxiety
Speaking of cuddling with your dog, there’s nothing you miss more than your pets from home. When you’re at school, you look at pictures of your pet(s) and wonder how you could have ever left them. When you finally get home, they can’t leave your side for days and you doubt your ability to ever leave them again.
You’re poor
I don’t know about you, but I’m poor as %#@&. This year has probably exhausted whatever you saved up over the previous summer. Most of your money has been spent on food, clothes and probably a fair share was spent from weekends out (a.k.a Uber and late night pizza). When you go home, you’ll work that summer job from high school or a new internship, and you’ll finally have enough money to go to all those summer events that you’ve been dreaming about. You’ll save just enough cash to last you for the next school year and do it all over again.
You’re craving your parents’ food
College eating habits aren’t exactly healthy or even that good. Among a few decent meals a week, you’ve survived the year on bags of popcorn, ramen and Jimmy Johns. At home, you open up the fridge to a wide variety of snacks and leftovers. Every night is a new home cooked meal and if you’re lucky enough, breakfast in bed. Your parents stock up on your favorite foods upon your arrival and make sure that you never leave the house hungry.
You miss your hometown friends
You all went to different colleges and made new friends. You joined different clubs and chose majors that will lead you to go into different professions, but the thing you all still have in common is your hometown friendship. That group of friends from elementary school, middle school and high school will all still be there when you get home. It’s comforting to know that after months apart, you still have people to hang out with when you go home. Who knows, you might even get back together with your high school sweetheart.
You miss your parents
They might hassle you about spending too much money and not calling home enough, but they’re just as excited as you are to come home. You know you missed them, especially when you got sick and had to take care of yourself. They’ve missed you too and can’t wait to have you back under their roof for the next three months. Yeah, they might complain about you not making your bed and always being gone during the summer, but make sure to spend some time with them too. They’ve been there for you while you’ve been away for the past 9 months and they don't get nearly enough recognition for all their efforts. Show them how much you’ve grown and matured while away at college and they’ll reward you with not charging you for rent.
This summer will bring new and exciting things, even when you’re just going home to your family and friends. It’s time to take a break from school and crappy food habits. You might not be studying abroad or living in your college town, but it’s a chance for you to remember where you came from… and to embrace the free housing.
