You’ve made it through the first big chunk of college. October has flown by, and all of the sudden you are packing your bags to go home for your first Thanksgiving break. You’ve been through a lot in a short period of time. You’ve made new friends, gotten used to your classes that once seemed impossible, and found out a lot about yourself. Now it’s time to transition back to who you were in high school. Your mom does your laundry for you, and you are reuniting with your friends that you haven’t seen in months. What should you expect during your first big weekend home?
You get that big fish feeling again
You think you were a big deal in high school? Maybe you were cheerleading captain, student body president, or threw the biggest parties. You’ll be introduced to ten people who have accomplished all that, and more. While humbling, it feels nice to go back to having the “big fish” feeling again. You and all your friends can share crazy stories together, and people still in high school will eat up everything you say. You’ll have the look of being a “college girl.” You can finally walk into a party and be able to name more that 75% of the people there. Your friends know who you are, and know what to expect with you. One downfall of this is that any new changes in your personality will be met with extreme sarcasm. These people have most likely known you since gym class in second grade, and won’t buy that you are a different person today than the girl who fell at the pep rally freshman year.
You actually missed your parents
You are so used to doing your own laundry that when your mom offers to do it for you it seems like the greatest gift you could ever receive. Do not be fooled by this, but eat it up. Your parents will be happy to see you, and they will be willing to do a lot to make you feel like you’re at home again. Your dad will let you stay on the couch all day instead of helping rake the leaves. No matter what problems or fights you had with your parents in the past, being home makes you realize that you are still their little girl, and they are still your parents. While everything else around you has changed, this relationship will always stay the same. It makes you want to call them every once in a while without them begging. Being home will make you appreciate your parents more and realize how much they do for you. We all suck as kids, and being apart from your parents makes you realize how good you have it when your mom is taking care of you.
You will not get any work done
You will bring books home and even your laptop, but these will barely get touched or looked at. Finals are looming around the corner, and you will tell yourself that you will dedicate this weekend to start studying. You will put studying off to see your family, friends, and to spend some quality time with your couch .You’ll slip right back into a zone of comfort and luxury, which basically means showering without shoes on. You don’t want to get out of bed to figure out the difference between marginal cost and marginal benefit. Your own bed is a completely different story. I personally love my bed back home, and have a romantic relationship with it. Nothing was more miserable than transferring from a double sized bed to a dorm issued long twin. Being in your own bed, in your own room (if you are fortunate enough) is an indescribable feeling and will most likely result in a 16 hour sleep coma.
While being home is a nice comforting change from dorm life, you will be excited to go back to school. You will realize how boring your hometown is, and why you were so excited to leave it four months ago. Reality is not watching six hours of Law & Order SVU: Reality is spending six hours in the library because you didn’t study for your finals.