You’re eight years old. You wake up at the break of dawn and run into the living room, and see a bundle of packages under the tree, beautifully wrapped in red and green with your name on it. You run into your parents’ bedroom, jumping on their bed until they wake up to go open presents. The cookies and milk you left for Santa are gone, and the excitement of the magic Christmas brings so much happiness to you and your parents. It’s a joyful time, full of happiness and laughter from the holidays. Everything is simple. 

Fast forward thirteen years. You’re suddenly twenty-one and a junior in college, trying to figure out life and what you want to do with it. You survived another round of finals, and it is time to say goodbye to your roommates, best friends, and fellow students to go home for winter break. Everyone you know seems to be sharing all their exciting and festive plans for break, from ugly sweater parties to quirky family traditions they adore. But not you. 

You used to return home and be embraced by both of your loving parents, but now only one of them is waiting for you. The other one is waiting for you at another house you are also supposed to call “home”. Christmas comes around, and you finally get to see both of your parents at the same time. You expect it to be like things used to be when you were young, but you were wrong. Instead of happiness and laughter, awkward silence and tension fill the room. Putting up and decorating the tree used to be a fun Christmas activity, but is now a reminder of the lack of Christmas spirit your broken family has as you put it up and decorate it yourself. Your parents are happy however with the gifts they have waiting for you under the tree. You are grateful for the gifts, but wish your parents knew that you could care less about gifts. What you truly want for Christmas is for your family to be sewn back together. You are old enough and wise enough to understand that they are better off no longer being a couple, but you would give anything to sit around together once again, drinking a mug full of hot chocolate, watching your favorite Christmas movies, laughing over stories from previous years and playing lots of games. 

For those of you who have happily-married parents to come home to during the holidays, never take it granted. It is easy and understandable to come home from college and get irritated with mom and dad telling you what to do after you’ve had so much freedom being on your own. But take it from me, you’d miss it if things were different. 

If you are reading this and you are going through similar experiences as I am, the best advice I can give you is despite the sadness and desire for things to go back to what they once were, make the most out of what you have been given. You are not the only one hurting, your parents are going through the difficult transition as well. While it is hard to accept, you still have two parents who love you dearly, and that is something that should be cherished.