Winter break: one of the many breaks that college students love so much. Not only do we get time off from the stress of our newfound independent lives, but it happens to be a longer break than what we were used to in high school. A week versus a month is a huge difference.

It starts off at the very end of finals when everyone is dying to go home, escape their problems, and spend time relaxing. We count down the days until we finally get to leave and say goodbye to one family and hello to another. The excitement builds as the time to leave nears closer and before we know, were back where we belong.

When you first come home, it's relieving and exciting. You know you have the next month to basically do whatever you want. Whether that's work, seeing old friends, or watching Netflix all day. Although for most of us, that sounds a lot like college itself, at least now we don't have to worry about all the shit were procrastinating. There's no homework, no classes, no stress. And then you realize you have time to see people from high school you actually kept in contact with and finally catch up on each others lives. You may even have a planned vacation or trip to somewhere cool and exotic, which you know all your friends will be jealous of.

This continues on for the first week or so, then things become routine. If you have a job, you get up, go to work, come home. It's your day off, or you don't have a job, you sleep in, relax, watch TV. In between all the sleeping, working and relaxing, you're spending time with friends, going out, and of course, eating.

After awhile things became bland and somewhat irritating. That job you were excited to get back to becomes your own personal hell. Sleeping in becomes a waste of half your day, while you ponder what on earth to do for the other half. Series after series takes up your life until you feel as if you don't even have one anymore. Hanging out with your friends is great, but you start to miss everyone from back at school. And that super fun out of the country, or out the that state vacation you were on is long over.

In comes the part where you actually start to miss things from school. For me, there's a lot of things I wish I was back to. The sketchy downtown area filled with trash and empty beer cans. The late night adventures to the gas station for snacks when nothing else is open. The hot, sweaty frat parties on the weekends. The mall that everyone goes to at least three times a week because there's literally nothing else to do. And most importantly, the people I've surrounded myself with and become close to over time.

I even find myself missing all the shit I hate and complain about back at school every day. The idiotic and useless CDTA bus system. The brick weather and the way the campus looks each season. The cheap college takeout food I'm forced to order when it's 3am and I'm hungry AF. Even the disgusting dining hall food. Okay well maybe not that one, but you get the picture.

And once you start to miss all the things you can remember, you realize just how much you love it and just how badly you want to go back. And once you have that notion, everything at home becomes just as boring and annoying as everything back at school was right before you left.

This is when people start posting "I miss you" pictures on Facebook and Instagram, and when they start making plans with friends for when they're all together again. Sadness sinks in as people realize they still have weeks to go before any of that can happen, and home life becomes even more boring as the days tick by.

And with that in mind, you continue to count the days until you're once again free and back to your second life and your second home. And then break finally ends, school starts up again, and the excitement of being back overtakes you. That is until you're a week in to classes with a shit-ton of work, an unlimited about of stress, constant procrastination, inedible food, the never-ending drama, and the want to go home again.

Then it's time to suck it up and wait for spring break.