When the semester comes to a close, people cheer that they get to go home to their awesome bed, or that they get to travel around, or whatever their interest for the summer might be. I am not on this bandwagon. I have only been home for less than a week, and I miss my little dorm room terribly. I miss the off-white clunky brick walls, the flat traffic-trodden carpet in the halls, the shady elevator that has developed its own nickname, and the common rooms that can never decide what temperature they want to be.

Yeah, I know, it’s hard to believe that anyone can miss those things but I really do. I miss the entire atmosphere. Do you want to know why I miss my dorm? I miss it because I knew that when I walked out of that room, I was only feet or yards away from some of my best friends. I knew I was only a one minute walk from my best friend’s dorm building, where I could go outside to tell him goodnight. I was only an elevator ride or a flight of stairs away from my other best friend, who lived one floor above me.

When I walk out of that small room, I am walking into a world of possibilities and activities. I am walking into the arms of the best people I know, of the kindest people I have met, and of the best education I could possibly pursue. I would gladly sit among those four walls year round, eat sometimes questionable cafeteria food, and live through a cricket apocalypse if it meant I could see the faces of the friends I have come to realize I can’t live the rest of my life without.

Don’t get me wrong, a break from schoolwork is nice. A chance to spend some time with my family, and friends is awesome, but I have come to find that being in my dorm gave me a sense of home that I didn’t realize I would miss so intensely until I was packing it all away to come back to my parent’s house for the summer. I don’t like packing or goodbyes to begin with. Even if the goodbyes are temporary, it doesn’t make them any easier. I honestly never imagined I could get so attached to people. I came to this school as a junior. I had been in college already for two years, and yet it felt like a whole new experience — but I guess in a way it was a new experience. It was God’s way of opening a door for me to learn to love new experiences, meet new people, and realize I can have more than one home that means a lot to me.

So yes, I would live in that crappy dorm. I would listen to thundering footsteps outside my door at all hours of the day and night. I would gladly carry my laundry across the building, share a bathroom with other people, and I would struggle with command strips to make the room look a little better. I would do all of that and more to keep that sense of home, that access to some of the people I love that I can only see during the school year. I appreciate and love my home that I have always had, but I still miss the home I have come to love and know. That is why I miss my crappy dorm, and I cannot wait until the fall when I get to go back!