I expected my short trip out to Kalamazoo this week to be anything other than what it was. I had planned on stopping by for a job interview, maybe walking around campus a bit, and then heading home more excited than ever to move back in for this upcoming semester. But the experience I had was definitely much different, and these are the thoughts I had while visiting for the three short hours that I was on campus.

It was definitely a strange feeling being back to Western. I felt both at home and also in foreign territory, and my mind felt like it should be readjusting to living here even though I would only end up spending maybe two hours on campus that day. Walking from my car to the building where my interview was being held felt like walking around a neighborhood where I used to live, but have not visited since moving away. This was especially confusing since I was so excited to come back to campus, as i had expected to feel right at home and comfortable right away.

Now unfortunately, I got my interview time wrong so I had about an hour to kill before I needed to be anywhere. I took this time to walk around campus and try to remind myself of where everything is, revisit my favorite places, and just generally get reacquainted with my surroundings before I move back in for good in September. As I was walking around, more of that general nostalgic feeling kept hitting me and this confused me more and more as I walked past Dalton, where all of my music classes were, and Schneider, where I had my first and last dreaded math class.

I couldn't shake this feeling as I sat by Miller Fountain, and I wanted desperately to know why I wasn't feeling as happy and excited as I expected to, it being my first time back to the school that I love so dearly in over two months. But it hit me quite quickly that the reason I felt so out of place and not as enthralled as I thought I might, was because none of the people I once was surrounded by on campus were with me.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm in love with Western's campus and its buildings and the city of Kalamazoo in general. But they tell you all your life that the people you meet in college will become some of your lifelong friends, and though I'm still skeptical of this, I can't deny that to a large extent the reason I loved my first year of college so much was because of my friends.

I loved living in the same building as every person I wanted to spend time with, and that a dinner companion was only a short walk down the hall. I loved that my friends were all from different places and loved different things. We hadn't known each other for years like everyone did in high school, so we were still learning things about each other every single day. I got to live in a dorm full of creative and talented people (some of which were still much too loud for my taste, but that's a different story for a different day), and I was taught by professors that were not only incredibly intelligent and knowledgeable, but also who were entertaining and funny as hell.

So though I did get a sense of emptiness and nostalgia while walking back to my car after my interview that I did not anticipate when I first arrived, I drove out of campus knowing that this feeling wouldn't last much past move-in day. I am in no means a very social person; in fact I choose to spend most of my time alone. But this visit made me realize that no matter how amazing or beautiful a place is, the people around you are what make or break your opinion of it.

I may have come to Western for the campus and the academics and the professors and all of that, but I'll definitely be staying because of the people I've met there.