This school year has been a time filled with new friendships, new places to see, and and overall period of growth. There have definitely been challenging times and times of celebration, but to have been able to experience it all makes me feel extremely grateful. It will be strange leaving a place I’ve called home for the past couple of months, but I find solace in the fact that it will only be for a short time.

Whenever someone says that time passes by too fast, you must believe them at all costs–because it does. My first year of college definitely felt as if it went by at the blink of an eye and it’s scary to think about how much faster the years will continue to fly by.

The day I first moved in I remember wondering if I was going to adjust to living with another person, how I would manage to eat healthy on my own, and also stay on top of my school work. As the weeks progressed, these things eventually played out on their own and I began to form my own routine. I got used to my class schedule and began to manage my own time to do schoolwork, and without realizing, adapted to the changing environment.

Now, with school coming to an end, and the eventual return to home, things may seem out of place or simply feel weird. I am excited to be going back to my own house–and bed–which I haven't permanently lived in all these months. However, going back home means that routines will have to change, and that’s not something that everyone looks forward to. How do you suddenly comply to doing chores when you haven’t even cleaned your room all semester long? How do you respond to your parents’ worried texts about your whereabouts when you’ve had to respond to no one these couple of months?

Changing routines is never easy, but one thing is certain–summer vacation is a period to spend and enjoy time with friends, so for the most part it is not hard to adapt to being back. Having spent a long time away from family, too, makes the return home all the more bittersweet.