The holidays are many peoples favorite time of the year, and for some pretty obvious reasons. Usually people focus on getting the best and most presents ever and consider that to be a successful holiday. However, there are many other things to look forward to, along with some things we dread that inevitably happen every year.

To start positively, if you have a pet, then coming home to them is probably the most amazing thing in the world. They really boast with joy since they probably haven’t seen you in weeks which means they give you all the love, cuddles and kisses to make up for it since you were gone. Going home for the holidays also means fresh sheets on your bed (courtesy of my mom), followed by the cleanest room I have seen in months. Not to mention, there is something so satisfying when I park in my own drive way that I don’t get here at college – especially at FSU since parking is the biggest disaster. Home for the holidays also means food comas (get excited!!!) from the most amazing home cooked meals. Additionally, because college takes people far away, I very much look forward to reconnecting with my good friends from high school over some delicious hot cocoa and festive light shows.

On the other hand, the holidays definitely bring about things we all wish we could avoid, and certainly do not look forward to. For starters, I think almost every college student can agree that while we are home we do NOT want to talk about school or classes. If you ask you will receive the same rehearsed spiel that we gave our other aunt earlier in the evening, you will get the “everything is fine, some classes are harder than others but I’m doing well over all” spiel and then we can hopefully move on. By moving on I mean to a topic not related to our love life’s (or lack there of for some); trust me if we had a significant other you would see if on Facebook. In addition, for those who have siblings like myself then you have the hardest time readjusting to sharing things like bathroom space and house hold responsibilities, mainly because being away at school you have come accustom to the opposite. Also, who can forget about the terribly cheesy and slightly uncomfortable family portrait, where we all have to match or be color coordinated so that mom can post it on Facebook for all to see, at least everyone does it too. Finally, the universe wouldn’t be satisfied if we did not run into the most awkward encounters of people from high school who we haven’t talked to in months (for good reason) and were forced to pretend like we cared about what they have been up to.

The holidays simply wouldn’t be the same though if all this craziness failed to ensue. At this point, it is just expected even if it’s not something we want, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.