As someone who chose to go to college over 1,000 miles away from home, I have definitely experienced my fair share of home-sickness. Growing up, I experienced many-a-times when my older siblings who were in college at the time would come home to surprise the family, and every time my parents were just as thrilled.
Well, I’m proud to announce that as I’m currently sitting in the airport across from a very questionable elderly man, I am embarking on my first surprise trip home. First of all, I want it to be known that because this is a surprise trip, that means I couldn’t tell my parents about my flight. This means I couldn’t ask my parents for help navigating through the airport. This means I did indeed just navigate through the airport entirely on my own. Am I an adult yet? Anyway, though I haven’t even boarded my flight yet, I am beginning to realize why my siblings would spend hundreds of dollars on a flight, skip classes, and get a little behind on school work just to come home and surprise my parents -- it’s exhilarating.
I love being able to do this kind of thing on my own, knowing that I am most definitely going to make my parents’ day, if not their month. While it’s hard keeping this trip home a secret from everyone, making sure not to let the plan slip while on the phone with my mom, or completely dodging all forms of communication the day of my flight, it’s so worth it. Remembering how excited my parents were to see my siblings after months of them being away at school, I am so excited to be the one that my parents are going to be excited about seeing.
Now at this point in the trip, it’s Sunday and my flight back to school leaves in less than 8 hours. Obviously, because of my lack of progress on this submission thus far, it’s been such a great weekend. The anticipation of waiting for this weekend to come combined with all of the people that I love who I was able to completely surprise made for such a great weekend with some of my absolute favorite people, though it’s never long enough. Tons of college students insist that the concept of a surprise flight home isn’t in the cards for them because of their finances, and I felt that for a long time, but this weekend made me realize that when it’s something you really want, you make the time and spare the money to make the trip.
Why spend all the money, rearrange your schedule, miss out on a weekend out with your friends, and go through the hassle of a long flight to and from? Well, if your family is anything like mine, the expression on their faces when you show up out of nowhere late on a Thursday night makes you forget about all the cons. So, finally, I’m sitting here on the most uncomfortable chair in the BWI airport, replaying the past three days in the most beautiful, fall weather with my favorite people and it couldn’t have been more worth the money and the hassle. I’d do it all again, to be honest- and I probably will soon.
