For a lot of us, it's almost winter break. Classes are wrapping up, finals are underway and we're making plans to pack up half our things and travel back to wherever our homes may be. For some, this is a very easy task. For others, this transition is a weird and awkward thing.
Home is where the heart is and where family is, but it's also completely different than when you're at school. At school, it's constantly just friends and academics. It's weird to just all of a sudden have no academic responsibilities at home.
Finals are a very stressful thing and some students even say that they go through the five stages of guilt. This may be a little dramatic but these tests are important for our grades and reflect our knowledge of the class that builds our degrees. If we get a bad grade on these, there will be consequences since they are so significant to our major.
We go through November, the hellish transition period between class/lecture time and exams and then go through the traumatic, turning points of December. All of a sudden, all these stresses disappear and you're free to go home. It's a weird feeling. It's very rewarding though, and after a while you do adjust.
Luckily for me, I get to go to a wedding with my sister and then go home to a loving family and spend a lot of time with them and my animals. Some students dread going home to a loud or different household and express that they will thoroughly miss their best friends.
It's hard to go home. It's hard to lose your half-independence and all of a sudden be back where you were before you started your new journey. I love my home but I still stress over exams and the results. High school was nothing around December, but college is so stressful.
Freshman year is also a rocky transition time from bare minimum high school work to all of a sudden having assignments up to your ears in the "real deal" that the AP classes warned you about. It's hard to adjust to that and then hard to adjust to the real deal every semester, every day of your life.
The good news is, though, that you will adjust. Eventually, it will become manageable and going home will be a breeze. It may be difficult and a hard truth to bear right now, but all in all just remember: you'll be okay.