Like many college students around the country, this is the first summer home from college for me. After taking summer classes last summer, I decided that i would skip this summer and spend the whole summer back in Atlanta. During second semester, all I could think about was being home and tanning endlessly at the pool just like I have done the previous summers. As I packed up my dorm and sent texts to my best friends at home about hanging out, I couldn't stop thinking about how getting lunch with my best friends at our favorite place, visiting old teachers and going for a run at my favorite park. However once I got home and all settled in, I realized that this time, this summer is different.
The places where you and your friends would always meet up is now filled with the younger kids who trying to figure everything out just like you and your pals were doing a year ago. Your old high school is filled with teachers that are new and students that you don't know. You walk the halls looking at your old locker and all the memories that you made in those hallways knowing that this isn't your place to make memories in anymore.
You try to text all your friends when you are back home trying to meet up with them before you all go back home but between everyone working or taking summer classes finding time to meet is so difficult, The conversations have changed from light topics like your cute neighbor that you were crushing on to heavier topics like future career paths and possible internships. You tell your friends about all the amazing people that you have met in school and try to tell them every single detail of the past year because you don't know when the next time you guys will have time to meet up. Meanwhile you are terribly missing all your friends from college. You go from being a two minute walk from you friends to being hundreds of miles away from them. Instead of praying for summer to never end, you are counting down the days until you will be back in your college town.
It's a weird feeling to describe. You come back home and it doesn't feel like home anymore even though it is home. You have been on your own for the past few months and when you come back home a little bit of that independence is taken away also. Going to your favorite restaurant doesn't feel the same anymore because you have a new favorite restaurant in your college town. You live out of suitcases because before you know it you are headed back to college. Home doesn't feel the same anymore because your college town has become your new home. Most of your memories are being made there, your friends are there and so is your heart.
This time being back home is different. I have seen how my city has changed but I have also seen how my place in my city has changed. My hometown best friends are moving up in the world doing amazing things and kicking butt in school. My parents are constantly making changes to my old room, the old meet up spots aren't there anymore and everything is constantly changing. Once again, it is a weird feeling to describe but I'm glad that I was able to experience and feel that feeling.
