When you go away for college, there is an extra special place in your heart for the holiday season. Back when you were in high school it was great because you got a week off to relax and enjoy all the holiday cheer, but now it is so much more than that.
The holidays means coming home for the longest extended period of time aside from summer. Its a significantly long break, just long enough to almost make you forget you're not home permanently. We all know the struggles of missing your friends from school and your college life, as well as the hunt for temporary work. The random phases of boredom come when nothing at home seems to fill the void your absence from school has given you.
However, there is so much to appreciate. You get to witness your world, the one you once were completely submerged in, from an outsiders perspective. You get to visit the lives of those around you who are in there permanent environment and see the best and worst parts of it. You get to feel nostalgic as you drive past the place you used to eat lunch with your best friends, or the random places you would find that you wandered to on the weekends. You feel mature and you feel nostalgic. You can smile at your past with this enlightened nod because now you know better. You can look at odd points in your past and say I wouldn't do it again, but i'm glad it happened. Its beautiful to look back on the life you once lived with a new perspective.
Most important you get to see the people you love, the people who have been in your life and never left. You get to watch them grow and see the new people they've let into your life. Your circle of acquaintances is starting to seem to never end and it's full of great people assuming the people in your life have the wonderful taste in people we'd hope they do, since it brought them to us.
You get to really appreciate your family since you no longer see them everyday. Things that used to annoy you start to warm your heart once you've found yourself missing those little annoyances. You find that home really is where the heart is, and home is really wherever the people you love are. So, its totally okay that you have more than one home. The holidays is just a lovely trip back to the home that made you who you are.
