I know I'm not alone when I say, "I don't feel at home when I am home." I'm talking about the feeling you get when you see that almost all of your college friends are home and with their 12 best friends from high school. Well, I don't have that. But, do you know what? That's fine. When you go away to college, home doesn't change, you do. You realize that some of your closets friends have drifted apart, some of them are still holding onto the past, and some of them have not changed at all.

However, for me, home changed also. I don't live in house or in the town that I grew up in. I don't live near the few friends I still have from high school. I am also still constantly reminded of the immature ways I behaved in high school. College was my escape; it was my escape from feeling isolated.

Feeling isolated in the dorms was virtually impossible. I had friends upstairs, and my boyfriend right across the hall. Being home is very different. I am in an unfamiliar room alone. I can't run upstairs and see my friends or go across the hall and spend time with my amazing boyfriend. It is frustrating to feel like I have matured since I last lived here, but I still have to be stay home and be treated like a child. Being forced into having freedom in college was one if the best the things for me. I learned more about being an adult than I ever did in any high school classroom, and I am so grateful for the knowledge I gained.

It is okay to not feel at home when you are home. It is okay to feel more at home in a tiny dorm room than in your house or apartment. However, make the most of it. It is so easy to sit around and count days until you are back at school. Its harder to get up and do something. However, summer is long and can be filled with opportunities for personal and professional growth. Do not let anyone around you control you like you are a child, because your not. Take advantage of where you are. With that in mind don't feel like you have to be out at every moment of everyday. Find a balance that works for you.