Coming home from college for winter break for the first time is a feeling like no other. I was so excited to come home!! I was packed several days before my last final and when I wasn’t studying, I was sitting around, impatiently waiting for the day I would make the hour and a half drive home. When I finally left College Station, I felt free! I knew I had no school and no responsibilities for a whole month. I stopped in at my best friend’s house on the way home and spent time with her before completing the drive home. I was so excited to get home! It was great, I walked in and said hello to everyone and then plopped down on the couch. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed my living room couch. My little brother unloaded my car while I relaxed and started talking to my parents. After we had all caught up, I realized I was exhausted, so I walked up the stairs to my room. My room seemed huge and so did my bed, even when it was full of all my things my brother had unloaded from my car. I crawled in my bed and slept forever, and when I woke up, I couldn’t shake the excitement of break. I woke up with no class to get to and no exams to study for, it was awesome!
Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator
Since I had woke up in the afternoon, I only had a few hours before leaving for a Christmas party with my “home friends.” I was super excited to see all my friends and catch up on how the semester was going. I didn’t realize how much I had missed all my friends until the few hours before I was about to see them. It was so exciting to all be back together again. At the same time, it was also so strange. I sat there with the people I had done life with up until the last 4 months, and all of a sudden I didn’t really know them. Now, that’s not completely true, I still knew them, I knew their laughs and favorite phrases and voices; but, what I didn’t know was how much their first semesters of college had shaped and changed them. The more time we all spent together, the more I was able to see how they had grown in the past semester.
Even still, the dynamic of our group had still changed. We now all had different friends outside of our high school friend group. I realized like me, each of my friends all now had two different lives. Just like I had friends at college and friends at home, they did too! It was like all of a sudden, we were all living two different lives, and one life was something I would probably never know or understand. Everyone had experienced different things in the 4 months we had been a part, which in turn, had caused them to make different friends or choices that I might never understand. There had been parties, movies, bachelor watch parties, lunches, dinners, football games, sorority meetings, sleepovers, classes, and road trips that I would never be a part of. At first, this realization made me sad, I would never know these people in the same way I had before, but after awhile, I realized that it was okay to feel that way, and that it was okay for us to grow-up.
The more I thought about this weird feeling of knowing people so well, and then realizing it would never be the same, the more I realized that it was incredible that we had all lived different lives. Four months isn’t that long in the grand scheme of things, but even still, the amount of change we had all been through was crazy. As I thought some more, I decided it was actually really cool to think that we had all had such different college experiences and that it was okay that I might never understand what the past four months had been like for so many of my friends. As we continued to catch up, I got little glimpses into their “college life” and loved seeing that side of them. I knew who they had been four months ago, and I was loving seeing this new side to each of them. Whether their college experience so far had been horrible, just okay, or amazing, everyone had individually grown as a person.
I loved being home over Christmas break. Seeing my family was absolutely wonderful, and relaxing after a busy semester was much needed. Another part I loved was seeing my friends! Even though spending time with them felt different than it had before, it was so neat to see how my friends had “grown-up” after “adulting” for four months. Although I was sad I hadn’t been a part of their lives besides through texting and social media for the past four months, I was also so thankful for my new experiences I had throughout the semester. I’m looking forward to spending more time with my “home friends” over the summer break and continuing to get to know who they are growing up to be, but for now I’m glad to be back in my dorm writing this. Break was great, but I had missed my “dormies” (my dorm-buddies) and everything else that comes with my college lifestyle. Surrounding yourself with good people is a huge part of how you will “adult” and will shape you into who you desire to be. I’m thankful for my “college friends”, just like I’m also thankful for all my hometown friend’s “college friends.” Without our college friends, we would not be who we currently are.
So to everyone who has been a part of my hometown friends college life, who have watched them change, and who will continue to grow up with them, thank you! You now know my friend in a capacity I might never, ever again. Please show them love and encourage them as they discover who they are, who they are going to be, and what they are going to do with their lives. You are so important to them, therefore you are also important to me. I hope y’all have so much fun during this second semester of college. Continue to try new things, be brave, be bold, adventure, and work hard over the course of these next few months, and know that I’m excited to hear all about everything when I see our mutual friend this summer. Without you, they would not be who they currently are, and after spending time with each of my “home friends” I know they are all doing great, and will continue to do great as long as you are a part of their lives.
