Spring break my senior year of high school, I moved to a new town. I was still able to attend and graduate at the school I went to for all of K-12, but it became harder and harder after graduation to stay connected with my hometown friends. I lived 45 minutes from them, we all had different work schedules, family commitments, and were heading to new places for college.
Eventually, communication completely stopped and all I had were my friends from college. While the first couple of breaks spent back home were relaxing by myself, it started to get unbearable to not be around my friends. Lucky for me, most of my college friends live no more than 2 hours away from where I live, but making that commute and organizing a day together is still not as easy as walking down the street to a hometown friend’s house. Here are some of the ways I cope with having no hometown friends during school breaks:
Appreciate the time alone: Balancing school, work, and a social life can be exhausting in college. As an introvert, I enjoy the opportunity that breaks allow me to disconnect from an active social life and focus on me. While it’s sad to not be around your college friends at home, it also allows you to breathe.
Plan days to visit your friends or them visit you: People are busy over breaks with their work schedules, holidays, family commitments, and vacations. Planning dates with your friends to visit each other gives you something to look forward to and, if you’re like me, someone besides your mom to hang out with.
Connect with your family: Being away at college, it gets harder and harder to stay connected with your family. Use the time at home to reconnect with family members and spend time with your parents. Trust me, it will be worth it in the long run.
Get an internship in NYC or take summer classes: If staying at home with none of your friends nearby sounds completely unbearable, there is always the option of staying in NYC. You can get ahead on credits and take summer classes on campus, work for one of the campus offices, or get an internship in NYC.
Only having friends from college is not as bad as it sounds, even with the long summer break. If you take advantage of it in the right way, using the break from your friends can be beneficial to your health and other relationships.