Leaving your hometown and starting college is a milestone and it takes a while to adapt to your new lifestyle, that’s a given. Every incoming college freshman knows that. What they don’t know though, is that it is just as much, maybe even a bit more, of an adjustment to come back home after your first year of college.

For me, it took about a good month and a half to get into my own routine when I got to college. I gradually got better at prioritizing my time, learned better ways of studying, and phone calls home became less frequent. Humans have a crazy ability to adapt without question. It was challenging to get used to a life run by me and only me, but if you think about it, it only took six weeks for me to adjust to a new lifestyle, after almost nineteen years of familiarity. It’s really kind of bizarre.

Second semester came around and so did new classes, new people, and a new job. This time around, I was better prepared and getting used to a new schedule took less than half the time as it did first semester.

Soon enough, finals week came around and I packed up my life in boxes and headed for home. I thought I was ready to take a break from classes, spend time with my family, and go back to my old job for the summer. I had no idea that it would be just as much of a transition to go back home as it was to leave, nine months ago.

I started work almost immediately after returning home, and, with my belongings still in boxes, I never got a chance to really unpack. My brothers moved into my room after I moved out late last summer, and our only empty room in the house was not really a place for me to stay yet. So, my boxes were strung out around the house, in the kitchen and on the stairs, and I had a mattress in the living room. In the evenings after work, I would come home and settle onto my mattress.

I didn’t realize how much I needed my own space until a couple weeks after moving back home. I wasn’t used to working almost 40 hours a week, so that was wearing on me. I’d come home and just want to chill out for an hour or two, but there I’d sit on my mattress in the living room, with my younger brothers constantly making some type of noise.

Since I didn’t have a space to call my own, an escape for me would be to go for a drive or hang out with friends for a bit. Being under my parents’ roof, of course they wanted to know where I was going and when I’d be back, but I had gotten used to doing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, while I was away.

There were a multitude of reasons I had a hard time adapting to the move back home, which left me wishing I would have stayed in Green Bay over the summer instead. But now that the summer’s almost over and my mind is gearing up for the move back to school, I realize now that coming back home after my first year of college was exactly what I needed.

It may seem like everything I have realized now that I am back in my hometown has been so negative, but it really hasn’t been. I’ve come to realize that I am much more knowledgeable, in the textbook sense, of course, but also of myself. This has allowed me to have pleasurable, thorough conversations with past teachers, community members that come into the local outlet store I work at, and even my relatives.

I’ve also realized just how important my family is to me. I thought I was beyond ready to move out and be on my own -- and I was -- but I never knew how much I relied on, cared for, and enjoyed the company of my family. Family means something different to everyone and also holds a different level of importance to everyone, but I have come to realize that my family is the base of all my love, aspiration, courage, and comfort in my life.

My free time seems to be much more valuable to me now than it was a year ago. When I am not at work, I spend most of my time with my family or adventuring in some way. I've been fortunate enough to explore the West Coast this summer, meet up with new friends, and spend more time out in nature. Although I have not made too much of an impressive mark on my hopeful to-do list for the summer, I can say I haven't wasted any time.

I thought I learned a great deal about myself throughout my freshman year, but I see now that I have grown just as much in my summer back home. I’ve come to accept that many of the people and places I had once spent much time with or at are of lesser importance to me, and that’s okay. Keeping them in the past along with the good memories is for the best.

If I can give any piece of advice to an incoming college freshman, I would tell them that things are going to change. By “things” I mean basically everything about their life. Some of these changes are going to be great and absolutely for the better, while some of them will be difficult and tiring, and leave you questioning everything. Although it may not seem like it, these changes are essential to your growth. And they’re going to make you exactly who you’re supposed to be. So hang in there.