Coming home after freshman year is one of the strangest things. I drove the six hours home, in my feels about saying goodbye to some of favorite people in the world, while also trying to get excited about spending time with my other favorite people - my family. I looked forward to lounging around the house with my parents, and cracking jokes with my little brother, but being away from college felt so strange. Let's face it - it feels different, because now we are different.
Freshman year is a year of adjustment and change. We spend the year figuring out things on our own. We decide what we believe, who you want to surround ourselves with, and who we want to be. We realize how we differ from our family, or old friends, or hometown. We are exposed to things that we may have never seen before - things that scare us, things that amaze us. It is a year of new experiences; a year of freedom. We have to balance all of the newness as well as the old, and sometimes that gets a little crazy. Then after all of that, after picking your friends, your major, your extracurricular, your beliefs, you come home. You come home to people who only know the old you; they expect the old you.
You come home to structure which is so different that the life you have been living the past two semesters. Those two-in-the-morning "come over and cry with me" sessions with your bestie - they don't exist at home. The "I'm starving will you ride with me to grab some food" runs at midnight - they don't exit at home. The "I'm gonna have everyone over in my room on a whim" - you better ask your parents before you invite ONE person over, much less seven or eight. The going wherever you want whenever you want doesn't happen at home, because at home its not just you anymore; you are with people who want to know where you are going and why. It's just how it is.
Over the past several months, most of us have changed. So coming home feels like we have to revert back to who we are to make those who love us happy. It can feel confusing, and sometime it just seems easier to hangout by ourselves, catching up with all your college pals on Snapchat. But the reality is that we have to live in the moment. Sure it feels weird going back to your pre-college life, but you're with people who love you and that is something to be cherished. Instead of moping around the house with the post-college blues, spend time with your siblings, talk to your parents, go grab lunch with your grandparents. See your friends you haven't seen in a year, because they've grown too. When you're home do the things that you can only do at home. Sure it gets sad at times when we miss our pals, but just because we aren't in Oxford (or wherever you go to school at) anymore, doesn't mean that we can't have fun at home too.
Enjoy the short time you have with your family and old friends. Yes it might feel strange to be back in your old stomping grounds, but it's still your home. Have conversations with them, tell them how you've changed. They want to know. But about all of that, cherish them because they are people worth cherishing.
