I absolutely love my family, and I wish I could be with them every week to go swimming with my cousins or eat a big family dinner after church, but college has made it a lot more difficult to spend time with them. Normally, I am able to find time to spend with my family for holidays, even if it means doing homework the majority of the time I am home, however, this Easter I was not able to make it home, and it absolutely crushed me.
This year life got too hectic with finals to top it off and as much as I tried; I just wasn't able to make it back. I was in Oak Ridge, Tennessee Thursday through Saturday for a rowing competition and we did not make it back until 3 A.M. Sunday morning. I had even packed my car, in the hopes of returning soon enough to drive home to Jacksonville, but when we got back I was too tired and had too much work left to do.
I was upset when I realized I was not going to be able to make it home, but I had no clue how upset I would be the when I woke up and was not with my family. Going to the church service at the O'Connell was nice, and I enjoyed it, but it was nothing like being at my home church with my family on Easter. It was especially sad seeing all the families sitting together in The Dome, and knowing that I was not with mine and I would not get to go home to a nice home-cooked meal by my grandmother afterward. I tried to substitute that home-cooked meal with a meal at Cracker Barrel with a friend, but it was just not the same.
Of course, my youngest sister had to make my middle sister and I (the oldest) feel even worse by calling us "betrayers" for not coming home- even though there is no way we possibly could have. She got my cousins in on it too, though one of the cousins apologized when she realized how much work we had to do.
It became even harder when I saw all their pictures in their cute dresses and their Easter Snapchat stories. I just wanted to be able to be there with them. Of course, my dad had to make it even worse and send me a picture of my grandma's deviled eggs, my all time favorite food, to rub it in. Though he did make it up by sending a video of everyone saying "hi," it just wasn't the same as being there.
Missing Easter with my family was very difficult, and I hope I never have to do it again. I would do anything to be with them right now, and I hope they know that. School is wrapping up, and I will be home shortly, so hopefully we can get together for a big family meal with some deviled eggs really soon.