Dear Freshmen,
This is me days before going to Catholic U.
The holidays are coming up…exciting right!? There is honestly nothing better then being picked up by your parents or on that train ride home going to that place you left about 4 months prior…a place you call home. There will be a lot of love and even more questions like do you have a boyfriend? Why don’t you have a boyfriend? How are the parties? Is college everything you thought it would be? How are your friends? Are you eating well enough, sleeping well enough…the list goes on and oh it goes on. Your parents, I’m sure for most of you, just left campus for parents weekend too. I’m sure you miss them, even just a little bit…there is nothing like the comfort of family and loved ones. Did you feel that little tug in your stomach when they left, even for moment as if you kind of, sort of wanted to go back in the car with them and go to that safe, warm place you’ve spent majority of your life. Well some advice that I got a long time ago, is that, that feeling only gets worse on your first breaks like Christmas and Thanksgiving.
One of the first pictures I took during syllabus week
Now this is not to scare you and you might be thinking, advice, what advice is that…but i’m glad I was aware of that thought. Now, I am by no means a home body, in sense that I don’t get homesick, I do but not in a crushing sort of way. I am a home body in the sense I can sit on the this most amazing olive green couch in my living room and watch hours of reality television. But on a serious note, I was having the time of my life my freshman year and wasn’t really having thoughts about break. Of course I wanted to go home but I really didnt want to leave, even just for a little while, the life I was living in D.C. But the breaks came and I went home and coming back from Thanksgiving was hard, harder than I thought, the break was quick and almost felt too quick. You then come back to your old routine at school but then BAM two weeks later and Christmas break is here. Being home for Christmas is just as magical as Christmas itself, the home cooked meals, smells of cookies baking in the oven, the scents of warm candles wrapping your house. In a blink of an eye its time to start a second semester and sometimes that can be the hardest. You’re expecting for your same routine to fall into place, the same fun you were having but with just living home after a period of time and trying to fall back in a place you just barely got used to can be alot. It is not the same for everyone but it can be too much. My advice and the advice I was giving was to talk to someone older about it, whose been through college before. Looking back now its almost insane to think about those feelings of longing for home four years later but talking to my Sophomore friends when I was freshman really helped me. But don’t worry if you don’t know anyone older, keep yourself again occupied, watch your favorite television show that makes you feel comfortable and plan something to make you look forward to something in the future.
Me during Christmas Break!
They say time heals all wounds and by now, I call D.C. my home…even my family will ask me when i’m visiting, “Oh what day do you have to go back home again?” Truly savor those first moments home and all the questions. My mom knows not to ask me about boyfriends, because honestly…truly and the conversations are more like how are the 3 jobs I have and what are the best deals at the grocery store. Your hair style and color might change those first few months of college as you can clearly see mine did but make sure you never do. Don’t give into any homesickness because that too shall just be a trend.
With all my love and wisdom,
-J