Coming to school and, all throughout the summer, looking forward to moving out is a common trend. It is definitely not rare to be texting my closest cousin about how much we can't wait to move back to school and how excited we are to be on our own again. My inbox is always full of texts from friends at college saying how I am going to die if I have to live one more day without seeing them. And, trust me, moving back to school is the best. Welcome week happens, bid day, homecoming...the list goes on. I am the number one advocate for moving away for school. BUT, there is nothing like coming home.
At about the two month mark, it starts. You wonder how many more days you can physically and mentally make it before you start to cry. "I swear I have never been this far from my family before!" The homesickness will take over until you once again text your cousin and say you need to get home fast for a home-cooked meal. I love coming home and I love thinking about home and I love being home. That doesn't mean I don't love school, or even refer to it as home. It just means that there is nothing like seeing your mom's smiling face and her shoving every food she has down your throat when you walk in. Coming home is when your four siblings try to act normal but you know they are so excited to see you when they follow you all the way to your room at midnight and still won't leave.
Coming home is getting your laundry cleaned for free, driving through hours of construction with excited jitters in your stomach. It is seeing open land and open roads and the smell of burning wood with classic rock that your dad greets you with when you pull up the driveway. It is your dad asking if the car is alright, but not you, because that's too much emotion for him to handle.
Home is familiarity, it is love and it is where my heart belongs.
