When I graduated from my all girls private high school, I was incredibly nervous to have a taste of the real world. However, I was comforted by having my support system at home: my family and my friends who still had one more year of high school left. Their presence gave me a reason to come home and a window into my old high school life that was so hard for me to give up. Or so I thought.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my high school friends. They are the people who I consider to be my best friends in the entire world, and I can see us being friends for years and years. But I couldn't help but feel left out.
As I was struggling to find my niche at the beginning of my first semester of college, my friends back home were hanging out together and partaking in all the activities that I missed the most about high school. Friday night football games, homecoming dances, theatre rehearsals, casual basement hangouts and so much more. Being in a group chat where they made plans to hangout and do things together while I was alone in my dorm room with Netflix was incredibly hard.
I knew that college was the time to branch out, try new things, and find yourself, but I couldn't help but miss my people, the people who had been by my side the past four years and was suddenly forced to live without.
Although I felt like I was missing out on the every day fun they were having together, coming home for a break or a weekend made being away so worth it. Making plans to go to a football game the night I came in, visiting all of my friends and my old director at theatre rehearsals, lunch dates, dinner dates, and our favorite basement hangouts. Everything became so much more special when they didn't happen every week like I was used to. And for this reason, coming home feels so much more special to me.
Every time I come home, no matter how long it has been since I was last home, I am always greeted by a scream, a hug, and an "I missed you!" These little things make me feel missed and loved, and like I still have a place where I am meant to be, even if it has become a little hard for me to find it.
I know that the next school year will be even more of a challenge. We will all be away next year, and coming home won't have the same excitement as it does for me right now because we will all be spread out. But I know the moment a free weekend or break happens to align, my people will be there with arms wide open, smiles on their faces, and an "I missed you" to make me feel at home again.
