In approximately two weeks, summer will be over for me, and I will officially be a college student. Saying that, typing that, it feels so weird! The mere thought of leaving my hometown for good is so thrilling- yet positively terrifying at the same time. I have never spent more than a week away from home, and now, I'll be spending the next four years identifying a new place as "home". Sure, I'll be traveling back to the Coast for winter and summer breaks, but even then, I'll undoubtedly feel like a guest in my own bed.

Maybe that is the logical reasoning behind why I have felt so strange and uncomfortable and just off these recent two months. I feel as if I am hanging on tightly to my home and my family before beginning one of the most defining chapters of my life. While I have not cried over the thought of this new experience as many of my friends have, I do feel the angst and nervousness and slight terror of living in a different place with people I have yet to meet.

I find myself spending more nights at home instead of going out. I hang out with my parents all the time now, instead of hiding out in my room or staying at a friend's house like I was constantly doing throughout high school. I even let my dogs sleep in my room now, despite the fact that they are up and ready to play every morning by 7:30! I feel myself clutching all the things I love more tightly as the days until move-in dwindle away.

I am definitely not the only one who is experiencing this, though. It seems as if all of my friends who are about to move to a new city feel the same apprehension that I feel. We have deduced it to a fear of the unknown and an anxiety of failure. Our constant worry about what is to come has given the summer an air of peculiarity and moodiness.

Despite our dramatics, I am determined to thrive. This will be my year. Let's hope I don't get homesick.