The school year is coming to a wrap — my first year as a college student is at its end. At this very moment, I am preparing for final exams, studying all night and all day. However, I cannot get my mind off of returning home, really returning home. I'm saying this as a girl who lives in the Houston area. Going home for me is not the same as it is for other people; I see my family all the time.

All the same, not living at home has given me a new respect for the place I tried so hard to run away from. As teenagers, we are all so excited to leave, to gain independence and to be an adult. I was so excited to be a "grown-up" — finally.

But living away from home doesn't necessarily make you a grown-up, and being a grown-up doesn't mean you can't miss home.

I miss all the things I connect to my home: hanging out with my brothers on weekends or going to the city with my friends and then coming back home at two in the morning praying our parents wouldn't know how late we were out (sorry, Mom). I miss watching movies on my couch with my cat — the same movies over and over again. I miss all the usual places: the mall, the movie theater, the places I used to rehearse plays.

I miss all of those things.

I miss the bands I used to listen to with my friends; we were all overly angsty teenagers with very little motivation to do anything but discuss music and pop culture. I miss sitting in the grass of the local park praying that a cop wouldn't drive up and tell us to leave. We told ghost stories and got scared by every shadow. I miss it.

All this is to say, if you get to go home, please enjoy your time there. If you get the privilege of seeing your family, of going to your old haunts, then relish it. Who knows how many times you will be able to go home? Who knows how long your favorite places will exist? Listen to old bands. Visit the dumb places where you lurked in your childhood. (Me? I was a mall rat.) Reminisce. Be nostalgic.

I know I need a taste of that nostalgia. I was in such a hurry to grow up as a kid; I am no longer in such a hurry. As we get older, we realize the time that ticked slowly as a child goes so quickly now: tick and tick and the time is gone. Enjoy every moment of the time you have. Go back and be a child; you'll enjoy it, I promise.

And then you'll get tired of all your childhood haunts again. You'll be so tired of home that you'll be so excited to return to school. You'll be excited by the place you now call home — college. And you'll thank yourself for the time you spent back home this summer for that newfound excitement — the same excitement you felt when you came to college the first time. Learning to love our past is an instrumental part of learning to love the present. Yes, an internship is important. But loving your life — not wasting a single minute — is equally essential. If you grew up too fast like me, then go enjoy your past now. It's not too late.