To the student away from home this summer, this one is for you.
Each April, UC students finish up the academic year and are packing to head home for the summer to their parents, guardians, or back to their hometown in general. However, not all of us have that option.
This summer, like many others, I had to stay on campus. Some students have to stay over the summer to take classes, work, or even to go on a study abroad trip. Whatever the case may be, you are away from home this summer, and this comes with mixed emotions.
Being on your own for the first time is scary. Sure, many of us lived on campus and away from home for a few months at a time, but at first, we went home for fall reading days, thanksgiving weekend, and winter break along with other holidays and days off of school. But what does it feel like when you can't go home until those days and then you simply can't?
On one hand, being on your own and providing for yourself opens up for a whole new adventure. On the other hand, being alone can be quite a lonely adventure. Sure, you have friends, roommates, peers, professors, and a whole new support system, but sometimes you miss the little things. For me, I miss being able to walk to the lake after lunch, spend a whole day with friends, and come home for some of my mom's cooking. I miss having a home base, family close by, and day trips to different small lakefront towns.
As much as I miss being able to go to the lake, hang out at the local coffee shop, and running into familiar faces, being by myself this summer made me realize that I had come to the end of one chapter and began the next. I realized that sometimes you have to make yourself uncomfortable to go after what you really want. I stayed on campus to work, pay off my summer tuition, and make sure that I was going to graduate ten months from now in April 2018 with a double major. Working three jobs is not how I imagined my summer, but it is what it is and we have to make the most of it.
Although I may not have the comfort of living at home or going to bed every night with my cat, making new memories and new connections makes it all worth it. I got to attend my first FC Cincinnati game, volunteer at Bunbury, and see some of my favorite bands for the first time - all while getting to know Cincinnati even more. Once my summer classes end this week, I plan to attend the local events I always hear about on Facebook and get in touch with my surrounding and new community.
I've learned that I have to make my own way and I can only do that by leaving home.
While there are parts of home that I miss, I do not miss it enough to want to go back completely. Going to college changes you and gives you life experiences that you may not have had otherwise. When you leave the nest, you leave it to better yourself.
Even though I went home the last two summers, I am thankful for being away this summer. I do miss my family, friends, and some of the places that make Cleveland a beautiful place. However, life is about new people, new places, and new adventures. It's about finding out who is really there for you, to build you, and to support you and your transformations and getting rid of those toxic relationships that only hinder you and bring you down.
So to the students who also can't go home for the summer, I promise, it gets better. At times, you will go through those patches of homesickness and yearning for that comfort zone, but as the saying goes, "it may hurt like a kidney stone, but it too shall pass."
This is our time to begin in a new chapter in our lives. After all, our lives are just beginning.
