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CU Boulder | Life

108 Days

Maddie Spicer Student Contributor, University of Colorado - Boulder
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CU Boulder chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

There is religion in wearing your mother’s clothes.

I am wearing my mom’s old Super Bowl XLIV tee and her sweatpants that say “royalty” on the back.

It’s been 108 days since I hugged my mother. Or my brother. Or my sister. Or my Gamma.

108 days of work. 108 days of new courses. 108 days of new challenges. 108 days without hugging my mom.

So on a day like today, when I wake up missing my family, I do what I can to remind myself that no matter how many miles separate us, they are always with me.

I call them and belly laugh on the way to class. I look at photos of my sister before her melanin developed (I swear, she was the whitest baby I’d ever seen). I FaceTime them and coddle our cat through the screen. I put on my mom’s clothes and carry her with me.

Every time I catch a glimpse of those stupidly stunning Flatirons, I think about them. I am indescribably grateful for the opportunities I’ve been granted recently.

Two weeks ago, I received news that after a long and rigorous battle, my housemates and I had been accepted into an apartment community. Last week, I turned 21; an age I’ve believed I was since I was 13-years-old. I’m staying in Colorado over the summer. I’ll be able to work and even pick up a second job to make some extra funds.

After a tough few months, I feel the beginning of happy again. As I said, I’m more than grateful for everything and everyone who has helped me get to this point. I’m not the type to sit and dwell on what I want when I clearly see a beautiful life happening right before my eyes.

But if I could change one thing, I wouldn’t ask for more money (oh, but it would be nice!), I wouldn’t ask for more friends. I would have my mom and Gamma right here beside me.

I will rest the pen on my calloused ring finger, like my mother, and sign the lease on my first apartment. I will wear outfits my sister would laugh at. I will walk around my current neighborhood listening to my brother’s favorite album (Frank Ocean’s “Blonde”). I will be proud of myself in a way that my Gamma would be proud to see with her own eyes.

Even though I can’t physically hug them, I feel my family all the time. It’s been 108 days since I’ve hugged my mom, but it hardly feels like it.

Call your family today. Tell them you love them. And if you have the privilege, go home and hug your mother.

Maddie Spicer

CU Boulder '27

Maddie Spicer is a contributing writer and the spring 2026 Social Media Director at the Her Campus Chapter at the University of Colorado at Boulder. As she joined in August 2023, her duties include researching and writing articles and features. Now, director of the social team, she creates content for college students akin to herself and leads a team of eight total members.

At CU, she is a third-year majoring in Journalism with minors in Creative Writing and Cinema Studies. She initiated her writing career in high school as a team writer for her school newspaper, The Yahoo!. In the two years she wrote for the paper, Maddie advanced from an entry-level writer to the Assistant Editor and public relations manager. In 2022, she was an attendant at the Washington Journalism and Media Conference (WJMC) hosted at George Mason University. During this week-long program, she met students, faculty, and speakers from all over the United States, and Maddie recognized her fondness for journalism.

Outside of school, Maddie is a relentless shopper and a self-titled fashion critic. She has established harmony between her passion for fashion and journalism through her articles: "Style, Spice, and Everything Nice." Her interests in cinema and production recently allowed her the opportunity to work in her college’s equipment checkout center, The Armory Vault. She describes her role — in layman’s terms — as “a librarian for technology.” Maddie believes Megan Thee Stallion and Don Toliver are her best friends (aside from her truest confidant, her darling mother dearest) and always has them on repeat. As an avid concert-goer, she devotes most of her finances to purchasing tickets of some variety. When Maddie is nowhere to be found, she is hanging out with friends, eating cheese (or chocolate chips), watching BoJack Horseman, or a strange yet typical combination of all three.