College is a culture shock. You're thrown from the familiarity of your home, friends, and family into a world of strangers, professors, and leaders. Rules are non-existent or super lenient so you can pretty much get away with anything if you're smart about it (including eating Froot Loops for all three meals of the day or sleeping through your 8 a.m. class). Coming home for summer break really should be easy as you slip back into the familiar, but I must confess, this past week being home from university has been one of the hardest weeks of my college experience.

Here are eight reasons coming home after college is super strange.

1. Curfew

So, you just got home and your parents are setting the ground rules. Curfew is probably something that's going to come up, and there's nothing you can really do to reverse it in the moment. However, if you wait until a night where you want to head out and get back late (or early), discuss a curfew alteration for just that night. If you're a really lucky soul, perhaps you won't get a curfew since you're a strong, independent college student who don't need no curfew.

I wasn't so lucky: my curfew is 10 p.m.

2. Chores

In college, cleaning your room was just about the only chore-like task you had to execute (if you even did that), but once you're home, chores are like your rent for living with your parents as an 18+ year old. My advice: just get them over with and do them well. Even do them before you're asked. Then you might get some leeway later on when you do slack off.

3. Taking Away Your Parent's Empty Nest

There's nothing worse than feeling like you've taken away your parent's privacy and freedom from not having to parent 24/7. Don't try to compensate by being away all the time though. Your parents are glad to have you home. The dynamic is just different since you're all adults now. Try to balance your presence around them and it should work out just fine.

4. Trying to Figure Out How To Drive Again

If you're one of the many students who chose not to bring a car to school with them, you're like me. Coming home and driving is super strange feeling. It's equally freeing and terrifying. Freeing because you get to go any where you want (as long as you're home by curfew), yet terrifying because you haven't done it in months. Hopefully your foot remembers which pedal is the gas and which pedal is the brake...

5. Sleep

In college staying up within the range of 11 pm to 4 am is pretty normal and your sleeping habits fit the lifestyle of university. If you're awake at 2 am, there's a high likelihood someone else is too and that means you can go on random 2 am adventures or just have early morning chats. At home, especially if your parents go to sleep as early as mine do, there's a chance you'll feel sort of obligated to hit the hay right away. There's just one problem: your sleep schedule is f*****. What do you do when 12:45 am hits and you've got no one to talk to? I guess Netflix is a fair enough answer, it's just weird since you don't have the excuse of studying to cope with your messed up habits.

6. Not Having Classes

As freeing as not having classes is, they kind of become part of your entire college schedule. You'd plan lunch around class and studying is an easy out of anything you don't want to do. Classes helped me stay in line and keep busy so summer makes me feel like I've just got too much time on my hands. I guess it's time to start applying for summer jobs before that time runs out.

7. Seeing Old Friends

Are you supposed to pick up where you left off, share your new ideas or just dabble in all the craziness that your last year has brought? Seeing old friends, especially just people you thought were your friends in high school, is odd. I've passed many a high school peer in the grocery store or in town, and have yet to say 'Hi' to any of them. Is that just me being awkward, or have I realized that they were never really worth the effort anyways? However, seeing your best friends from home is completely different. It's such a relief and probably the number one way to start getting used to your hometown culture once again. The best part is that they've probably been in college too and so you can totally relate to each other.

8. Not Eating Dining Hall Food

This is probably the biggest pro of being home. Even if you don't consider the food you eat at home as the best on earth, having access to the sheer variety of food is exquisite in itself. It's great because you can finally get back onto that diet that was impossible to uphold in the dining hall or buy your favorite cereal that they never had at school.

Overall, it's just great to be back.

Just like the transition into college, the transition back home is just as difficult. But I've gotta say, nothing is more rewarding than knowing you killed a year at college and lived to tell your home the tale.