We have now been at school for over seven weeks, and I have not seen my parents in that whole time. The beginning of sophomore year has been much smoother than the beginning of my freshman year, and I have found that I do not often long to go home as I did at this time last year.

However, that does not change the fact that it has been the longest amount of time I have ever gone without my family and I am extremely excited to see them. Living in a quad I am surrounded by people most of the time, and being in a sorority, there are always people for me to hang out with, and activities for me to do.

Because of this, I am often too distracted to be actively missing home. I also call home several times a week and my mom keeps me filled in on what is happening, so I often feel like I am not missing out on everything. However, even though I don't constantly think about missing home, I could not be more ecstatic to hug my parents this weekend.

After a brutal two weeks of midterms where I have been living under constant stress, I just want to be able to unwind with the people I am most comfortable with. I want to see my sister who I am very close with, and to see my brother and to hear about how he is doing in his sophomore year of high school.

I want to sleep in a room beside my dorm room and wake up surrounded by the people that I lived with for the first eighteen years of my life. I want to be treated to good dinners, not from a dining hall, and to be able to laugh and talk about things that only my family would understand.

Because this semester has been moving so fast I haven't felt like it has been almost two months since I have seen my family, but now that I know they are coming this weekend it is hitting me how long it has been, and how badly I want to see them. I'm also glad because this is the longest stretch I will go throughout the school year without seeing them.

After this weekend, I will be home in a month for Thanksgiving, then three weeks after that, I will go home for a month for Christmas. Last year at this time I had countdowns going until when I would see my parents, and although I am past that phase now, and days move much quicker, this week I am watching the clock tick down until it is Friday afternoon and they arrive.