As the semester came to a close and I finally hauled myself out from under the pile of work I had to do for my finals, I was filled with excitement by the idea of going home. It had been months since I had been at home and I was ready to be able to just lie down on the couch and do nothing.
Packing up my dorm room was tough—mostly because I never realized how much junk I had in there—but saying goodbye to my friends was harder. Although we don’t live that far apart, it feels as though you will never see each other again. You relive the memories that you made and you think about how close you have gotten with people that you have only known for a few months, but saying goodbye feels like forever.
After all of the goodbyes and packing all of my stuff in the car, I was finally on my way home. I couldn’t wait! I was ready to eat a home cooked meal, sleep in my own bed, and spend time with my family, but that feeling changed when I pulled in the driveway. After finally settling back into my own room, I was filled with a sense of boredom. I come from a very small town and although my college is also in a small town, there is a vast difference in the degrees of smallness. So here I am, finally home and away from the stresses of school, but all I can think about is going back.
All I can think about is being back in that small, cramped room surrounded by my friends as we just stare at each other trying to figure out what we want to do for the day. I don’t miss the work, but I do miss the atmosphere. I yearn for that feeling of being surrounded by people while simultaneously living in my own little word, that feeling of living alone without ever actually being alone, that feeling of knowing that at any moment, my friends could burst through the door spouting off some juicy new gossip or forcing me to go on some crazy adventure.
College means something different to everybody, but for me, it has become a home. People always talk about college as your “home away from home,” but I have grown to look at it differently; I feel as though college is where I belong and I am just visiting when I go home. I know that this feeling will pass and when August rolls around I won’t want to go back to college, but for these first few weeks of summer, the only thing I can do is hope that the friendships I have made will endure and we will all be able to pick right back up where we started.
