You are finally free from finals, and you've been counting down the days.
Now, at last, you are home! Food is free, you've got your old bed back, you're surrounded by family, and at first, it's complete bliss.
But that relaxation and complete joy quickly subside to boredom, and you're faced with the struggles of returning home for summer every college student feels.
1. Back at home means back to the old rules.
You might have lived a year on your own now, but to your parents, nothing has changed. Your year of living in squalor has come to a cruel and abrupt end. No laundry on the floor, Daniel.
2. Back at home means you've suddenly got a curfew.
"What do you mean you don't know when you'll be back?" Your unnatural sleep schedule and night-owl tendencies don't quite mesh with your mom's new 10 pm curfew- which to you, a free adult, feels like absolute slavery.
3. Back at home means people judge you for how long you stay in bed.
So you might prefer to sleep until 1 p.m. because you can and then watch reruns of Futurama for, you know.. several days. This is all well and good until your mother repeatedly thrusts open the door, brow furrowed with concern, insisting that you "Get up and do something!" Sigh.
4. Back at home means all your friends are hours away.
5. So you start hitting up anyone, literally anyone, to whom you remember having a vaguely social connection.
You are so bored that you are scanning your Facebook friends list for a full-on acquaintance inventory. Hey, remember that kid in your high school biology class? Lab partners are basically friends, right? Wonder what's he up to. Maybe he'll want to chill. Seriously. Anyone. I do have friends here, right?!
6. Back at home means you remember everything you hate about your hometown.
Seriously, Katrina still lives here? And she's on her second child now? You forgot half these people existed. All your mom's friends, and all your old high school acquaintances, just happen to be around, but you feel like you don't even know them.. and don't remember why you wanted to. You realize how much you've changed at college, and sometimes those changes are impossible for your hometown friends to understand.
Also.. the rednecks? The traffic? Was it always this bad? And this boring?
7. Back at home means those awkward "what are you doing with your life" questions.
Apparently now life plans are the fodder of small talk. "So you've been at college, what are your big plans for the next few years?" I don't know Susan who works at a gas station, what are yours? Can we not with this question.
8. There will be moments of existential crisis.
Back at home is a rough adjustment. You've found yourself, and you've grown a lot You looked forward to this moment all school year, but now that it's finally here- well, quite frankly, you already can't wait to get back.
9. But you can do it.
Back home means you are more loved than you realized, and now you have two homes- so even when it's a struggle, that's something to celebrate.
You did a good job. You worked hard this year.
Enjoy your summer, and know you're not alone in any of your feelings.
There's a lot that's wonderful about being home, and for all the parts that are not? Well, you'll be back at school before you know it.
