I recently went home for the first time since leaving for college at the end of August. Growing up, I never went to sleepaway camps in the summers or spent long periods of time away from my family and my home — the most time I’ve spent away from my parents was two weeks at most. Leaving for college and having to say goodbye to everything I had become so familiar with was absolutely terrifying.
I’m from the East Coast (shout out to Philadelphia!), so unlike many in-state students, I clearly wasn’t going to be able to make spontaneous decisions to hop on a bus and go home for a weekend. I decided early in September that I wasn’t going to be able to wait for too long to go home, so I booked a flight the second weekend of October to visit home for a few days.
When I stepped off of the plane upon arriving in Philadelphia, I almost felt like I was a tourist — I looked all around and took everything it in, but I soon realized that I felt almost unfamiliar with a place that had once been so familiar. Seeing Madison and its campus every single day for the past few months almost made me forget how my real home is like. But the real emotion hit close to home (no pun intended) when I arrived at my house.
First of all, I have never seen my dog so excited to see anyone — it was like he thought he’d never see me again. My parents were ecstatic to see me, too. My mom was almost in tears, like any mom would be. However, being home for the first time didn’t feel as normal as I had expected. It was as if I was a visitor in my own home; I knew that my visit to home was only temporary and short-lived, which is something that I had never experienced before.
I also visited and went to places that used to be norms for me. My mom and I went to our favorite breakfast restaurant (eating food that isn’t from Gordon’s was an inexplicably amazing feeling), took a walk in our favorite park and saw relatives whom I hadn’t seen since the summer. But, the best part of the entire trip home was being able to get in the shower sans shower shoes — oh, and sleeping in a real bed was cool, too!
No one said going far away for college was an easy thing to do, but it’s something that I wouldn’t change for the world. It’s not unusual to feel a little uneasy being home for the first time, and that’s okay. You’ll always have a home to return to, but for now, cherish your temporary home in Wisconsin; give it all you’ve got because you only have four years.
Even being away for a few months has taught me so many things about being on my own, in addition to seeing a new part of the country and meeting people from different backgrounds. I’ll always be able to return to my home back east, but for now, my home is Madison.