Phase One: The World is Ending

Before leaving for college as freshmen, everyone feels as if their life at home is ending forever. Every “last” is a huge deal. The last time you cuddle with your cat is the end of an era. The last time you grab coffee with your childhood best friend feels like you’re moving to Mars for the rest of your life. The one last glance you take at your disaster of a bedroom after packing all of your belongings is like closing the door on the last episode of Friends. There are lots of tears, lots of hugs, lots of “remember whens?”. Every college student goes through this, whether they would like to tell their new roommates how dramatic it was or not.

Phase Two: “Where has College Been My Whole Life?”

The first few nights of living away from home feel like a giant sleepover that you never come home from. Suddenly you realize you can stay out until 4 am if you want to because your parents won’t be up waiting in your dorm, waiting for an explanation. You can order pizza whenever you want because why not? Domino’s delivers! You can clean your side of the room if you want to, or you could just avoid it entirely because there’s no “we are having company tonight, so clean your room!” lecture. Basically, you realize living at school is like coming out of a hole and being blinded by the sun you didn’t know existed. You are now free to be independent and make your own choices.

Phase Three: Holy Crap, High School Was Easy

As you ease your way into college level classes, you realize that everything is actually legit here. There is no late homework allowed. Absolutely every assignment must be typed with a word count minimum. If reading one chapter of a novel per night in high school was a big deal, reading five chapters of a textbook certainly isn’t a walk in the park. Neither is the chapter outline due with it. In other words, college work is hard. Even if it’s on a topic you are interested in and hope to make a career out of someday, the workload is heavier and on a new level of hard. You realize that on some days, dropping out and working at your high school restaurant job forever sounds pretty nice. The good news is, when you work really hard and pull all nighters, the A+ you receive will feel like winning the Boston Marathon.

Phase Four: When Can I Go Home?

By the time finals arrive, you realize that all you want is to sleep in your own bed and to enjoy a home cooked meal. The dining hall food may have cut it for a while, but let’s face it, we all need to get back to our old digestive systems at some point. You’ll realize you forget what it’s like to shower without flip flops on. By the time you are heading home after your last final is finally over, you’ll be daydreaming about your mom or grandma’s famous stuffed shells. We all go home eventually.

Phase Five: When Can I Go Back To School?

Who knew that coming home to a nice homemade meal and comfy bed would get old eventually? After spending a month with your family probably driving you crazy about curfews, you’ll be delighted to flee the area. After all of your friends have left and you’ve been hit with a few too many “how’s your college experience going!?” questions, it’ll be time to hit the road. You will be overwhelmed with excitement to see your new friends from different parts of the state or country, and even more excited to be a free bird again. At least until more finals come.