We started our story in New York but by grace of a college acceptance and need of a tan we flew down to Florida for the next adventure.

I sat at breakfast the other day with one of my best friends I met at college. We talked about the past weekend and the work we have due this week. It all seemed normal. I sat in the cafeteria that has become my main source of food since moving away from home. Just by looking out the window and seeing the different foliage, I remembered that I am far from home. For the past year this feeling has come in waves, but as my freshman year comes to a close, I keep getting reminded that I have a new life - a new home. Thinking about going home for Christmas made me excited but coming home this summer feels wrong. My school has truly become a new home. My life here feels right and it just seems weird to leave it all. To think that I am going back to my hometown in a few short weeks has me more worried than I anticipated. It's just as hard to go back to a place you once left, as it is to leave it again.

I feel like I've betrayed the town where I was born and raised. My little New York suburbia had kept me safe and let me grow into a pretty cool person. But somehow I was skeptical about missing it when I left last August. I had a coffee shop I did my homework in, a bagel shop I got my breakfast from and walked the same road home everyday. Life was good, life was comfortable. I have memories engraved in trees and hung up on the school walls. You can name a place in my town and I can tell you when it opens and how good the food actually is. I have countless things to thank my hometown for, but nothing will be enough. The people I've met and the accomplishments I've achieved makes me proud to be from such a phenomenal town.

Through a summer, a fall, a winter and a spring I've grown a lot from the girl I was last year. Maybe I didn't change physically but my outlook on everything is different. I didn't think that I would be that cliche college kid who is suddenly changed because the scenery is different. I have learned to appreciate my hometown more, I try to check on my friends back home more often and I've realized that this whole thing is a lot harder than I thought. It won't get easier but it's going to get better. This year away from home has been the best year of my life but that doesn't mean I've forgotten where I came from. My dreams are bigger than ever but so are the resources I need to achieve them.

New York will always be home. I will always have that asshole and fast-walker in me. I'll always defend the Yankees and I'll keep my Uggs. I will never stop talking about my bagels and pizza. I will never stop complaining that diners aren't a thing in the south. I will always tell you that Dunkin' Donuts is superior. Nothing will compare to the sunsets I watched every night on the Hudson River. I will never stop being loud. As much as I have those days that I hate it, I will agree with you when you say New York is the best place on the map. I will always hate New Jersey. New York has done me dirty but it's the only place I'll take it from.

Life in Florida is amazing, don't get me wrong. I don't regret my choice and I will not be transferring into a snowy hell. I'll be a sophomore in two weeks time and that thought alone is terrifying. Where the hell has freshman year gone? Where has the money in my bank account gone? Well that answer is too many nights to the bars, but whatever. To think I have to pack up my dorm when it seems like I just moved in yesterday is insane. I blame a lot of that to the Florida weather because it still feels like August. Knowing that I'm a quarter done with college is a crazy thought. 13 classes later and here I am, ready to start over again. I have grown and I am going to grow further from the New Yorker I was and become more a Floridian than I had thought I would be. The change has come suddenly but I'v learned that you need to embrace it. Freshman year is over and I can't tell you how happy I am, but I also can't wait for the next three years (or however long it takes to get this damn degree).

"It's a funny thing about coming home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You'll realize what's changed is you."