Home is where the heart is.

The other night, I had a little get together with some of my closest friends from home. It was really nice to rekindle my friendship with everyone and hang out like “old times.”      

I've had a lot of friends throughout the years, but I've kept a good amount of close friends with me. I’ve always loved the quote, “Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints on your heart.” To me, those are the good ones. These are the people who I have grown up with and who have experienced all of the pre-teen to teenage life changes with me. They have seen me at my best and have also seen me at my worst. Regardless of the situation, they have stayed by my side.    

Some of these friends have been with me since Kindergarten and others since High School. It’s always nice to come home from college and catch up with my friends from home. Although we all have another life away from home filled with different scenery and friends, we still remain the same when we return home to each other.

However, this summer in particular is a bit different. We have all finished our second year away from home and consider our new lives at school the best life. It’s to the point where some may think that school is better than home and being home may be viewed by some as torturous. Trust me, I've had my moments where I hate being home, just want to leave and drive the 8 hours back to West Virginia. But there's still a big part of me that does love and appreciate being home in Connecticut. It holds so many of my fondest memories and is always going to be a special place in my heart.    

A lot of my friends, including myself, are using the summer to work as much as we can to save money for the upcoming school year. With a lot of different work schedules, it’s hard to make time to hang out as much as we  would all like to. But when we do find time to meet up, even if it’s just for a cup of coffee or an egg sandwich at our favorite bagel place, I always leave with a smile on my face and think to myself, “man, have I missed her.”    

I say this summer is different because a lot of my friends are slowly choosing to not return home to Connecticut for the summer and instead are choosing to stay at their schools or find an internship far away for a multitude of reasons. I have mixed emotions with that because it forces me to come to the realization that we are indeed growing up and mainly focusing on our soon to be careers. That scares me a lot. It also makes me sad because summer is basically the only time I get to see my hometown friends. Through my experience with going to school so far from home, I have learned that some friendships won’t survive the distance. But, I have also learned that many do. It’s all about who is worth staying in touch with. Even with all of these changes occurring, I'm just reminding myself that “life” is simply happening and growing up is inevitable. 

While change is upon us, one thing is for sure and that’s how grateful I am for friends who go out of their way to make time for me. It proves that time and distance truly does make the heart grow fonder.