So you have had a long week, and you think you might benefit from a weekend away from all the drama, the deadlines, and the divas. If you, like me, live at a distance just close enough to home for it to be convenient to go home for the weekend, you have most likely experienced these almost inevitable results of spending a weekend at good ol' Mom and Dad’s.
Blessings
You get some much-needed R & R. For those of you who do not know what R&R is, you should become familiar with the word because you might need some, you stressed out individual, you! Rest and relaxation is something every busy college student needs every once and while -- whether you think you need it or not. Although a little stress can help drive you to be successful, it can be nice to unwind after a period of time of being stressed. What better to help you rest and relax than your own bed at home?
You get to see your family and pets. If you are a busy college student involved in extracurriculars and Greek life, then you probably do not go home as much as your mother wishes that you would. By going home, you get to see your family, but one thing that a lot of college students miss when they leave home is their pet. Let’s face it -- more times than not, we would rather curl up with our pet than answer questions about our grades, boyfriends (or lack thereof), diet, sleeping habits, etc. Pets don’t ask questions. Pets understand.
You get laundry done and other much needed supplies from the home base. I don’t know about you, but whenever I am home I take full advantage of my parents offering to buy me groceries. Naturally, I stock up on essentials such as CheezIts and Greek yogurt. I also like to use washing machines and dryers that 300 other people are not trying to use at the same time. And sometimes my mother does my laundry for me. She’s the best.
Struggles
You never get as much done as you think you will. No matter how many things I write in my planner to do when I go home for the weekend thinking that I will be home with less distraction, I am always wrong. Wrong, wrong wrong. I can make plans all day long, but something about being home makes me not want to even open my planner and not think about those plans at all.
Your sense of time is completely shattered. When I am home, I tend not to keep track of the time as well as I do when at school. If I have no where that I need to be all day when I’m at home, it is difficult not to fall into the pattern of being distracted and not looking at the time. One Netflix episode turns into five (because Friends is just so good) and suddenly your 20-minute distraction turns into a two and a half hour binge watching session.
FOMO. This is a major problem us college students have. Fear of missing out can throw the best-laid studying plans out the window in favor of going to Chipotle with our friends (who wants to miss out on guac?) When you are home and away from your friends, you see their Snapchat story of them doing something that looks like the most fun they have ever had, and you get jealous and wish you were back in your college town.
Whether you have experienced more of the blessings or the struggles, who says you can’t go home?
