Everyone said that coming home from your freshman year of college would be difficult, but no one explained just how much your life would suddenly change or how much you would notice how much you’ve grown up since the last time you lived at home.

The first week home is exciting. You get to catch up with the old gang and exchange stories, both the drunken nights and the time you skipped class to go jump off the cliff at the quarry and everything in between. You get to hop in the car and cruise around town, go to your old favorite ice cream shops and pizza joints and cause trouble in the hometown.

But soon enough, you realize how much down time there is in a day without classes and studying. Your summer job is not into full gear yet, and you are running into your old high school friends, classmates, neighbors, parents’ friends and anyone and everyone around town having the same conversations with every–single–one of them over and over and over again. “How did you like your first year?” “Are you happy to be home?” “Sure is nice having that first year under your belt now, huh?” And without hesitation you respond that you loved it and cannot wait to go back.

Something that also occurs during these conversations is the competitive fire that begins to burn brighter and brighter, story by story. Slight jabs are inserted in comments on why YOUR first year was SO much better than everyone else’s and why YOUR school is THE best university in the nation. No one is doing it to be mean or to put down each other’s schools, but every person truly believes that no other college parties as hard as them or has as much fun or is as academically challenging or has as many cute guys or has the best Greek life or countless other comparisons. It's all in good fun, and your true friends listen and laugh at all of your stories as if they were right by your side the entire year.

A huge difference between being home and being at school is the comfort of your room and not having someone to hang out with 24/7. Now that you are home, the only people around all the time is your family. Again, the first couple weeks are fun — goofing around with your siblings and pets and spending quality time talking to your parents. But, you can no longer walk seven steps to sit on your best friend’s bed and take pulls of wine at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday. You can’t stop by your man’s dorm and watch a quick Netflix episode with him in the middle of the day. You can’t charge smoothies to your student ID randomly throughout the week (you have to use “real money.” The worst.) You can’t go out to a party and walk home or get a freshman fraternity boy to drive you back to your house. But the thing is, partying isn’t the same now anyway without your college besties. Nothing is as fun without them. You find yourself hanging out at home constantly.

More than anything, you have learned how much you have grown up since you have been at school. You have learned countless life lessons in the rapid nine months you were a couple hours away from home. You have learned how grateful you are for everything your parents have done for you. You have realized how petty high school kids and their “problems” are. You have learned how fast time goes and just how precious your “young, wild and free” moments are. You have learned that those few blocks of your college campus is the closest to heaven you can get, and you CANNOT wait to step back on to it. And you text your favorite college people almost daily asking, “Can we go back yet?”