Regardless of whether you’re a freshman, a sophomore, a junior, a senior, or even a fifth year senior, leaving home at the end of the summer is never easy. As a freshman, it is new, exciting and scary. Well as an upper-classman, it is similarly as exciting, going back to see your friends.

But it is also sad. You know exactly what you’re leaving behind because you have done it before. You have left them all behind and went to this new and different place with new and different people. For some, it can be completely new life without them.

I will miss many people, beyond my friends and family. I will miss the coworkers I just spent three months working with. The ones I have shared laughs and memories with. But yes, I will mostly miss my family.

For many people this is a difficult part; whether your family is a typical family or an untypical family, you are bound to miss them. I miss my dad and all the things we have in common. I miss my mom, even though she drives me up the wall because we are so similar. She always seems to know exactly the right things to say. I miss my brothers, who tease and pester me. A part of me feels only empty without them.

I miss the family board games and the domino nights. I miss the random calls and text from the friends you have known forever to go and do something. I miss Chinese food nights, girls nights, Starbucks dates and the drive-in. Four months away feels terribly long without your family.

I am more than grateful for all of your support. I could never repay or thank my friends and family enough for the support they give me leaving for college. That they are willing to wait for me to come home again and pick up like I never left. I could not make it through the semester without the phone calls from my mom and dad, the Facebook messages from my brother, or my friends checking up on me. I am grateful many of my friends keep in the loop of what’s going on miles away at home.

If you are reading this and I left you behind, I am lucky to have you!