Everyone knows the anticipation in the weeks leading up to going home. You are excited, anxious, and ready to see all your friends and family and then once you get there two days later you can not wait to go back to school. The freedoms you have in college compared to the structure of being home can be a hard adjustment for some students. Being that my parents live in Germany, I have only been home once this school year and it was during winter break. I was looking forward to it all semester and I had a great time but I never realized how many negatives there are associated with going home. Although there are always negatives and positives with anything so here is a list of pros and cons that most college kids can relate to when they go home.
Pros
1. A home cooked meal
After months of stale, unseasoned dining hall food, I realized how much I took my mother’s cooking for granted. She also would always make my meals the way I like them (without onions) and the dining hall staff do not care. I will never take a homemade meal for granted again.
2. Binge watching your favorite TV shows
For me this part is twofold. For one I love watching TV but when I do it during the school year I always feel guilty, like I should be studying or working on projects. Also, there are certain shows that I enjoy watching with my mother
3.Game partners
I love board games and Wii games and it seems like everyone in college just wants to go out partying on a Friday night where I love to stay in and play games. My parents are long past the party phase so I have two game partners at my disposal all the time and I love it.
4. Everything is paid for
This is pretty much self-explanatory considering most college students are broke, sometimes it is nice knowing you do not have to pay for toothpaste or toilet paper for a month.
Cons
1. All the questions
The whole time I was back home I was asked so many questions about my GPA, if I have a boyfriend and a bunch of other harmless questions. They are not meant to hurt me but when I am on vacation I like to relax and not worry about school.
2. Seeing people from my high school
A lot of people from my high school did not go to college and seeing them makes me anxious that I might have turned out like them. Also, when I left school on June 8th 2016, I never looked back.
3. Not getting to spend as much time with my family
When I was anticipating going home I was really expecting to spend a lot of time with my parents which I did not get to do as much as I would have liked to because my father was working a lot and I felt like he was missing out on things.
4. Missing your college friends
When I went home I really did not think I would miss my friends as much as I did, but by night three I was missing our late nights staying up in the study room and critizing the Food Network.
So the next time you get to go home enjoy every single moment with your parents, even the negatives because if your experience is anything like mine it is going to have gone by way too fast.
