Hey Mom, I’m just texting to let you know that I made it home safe and sound. I had a few bumps along the way, but I made it back all in one piece. Thanks for a great holiday break, but I couldn’t be happier to be back on my college campus and to be back home.

Unpopularly, I define the three walls that make up my half of my dorm room as home. My ugly, towering dorm building, while hideous, is home as well. The people that live on my floor and in my tower are the equivalent of a big extended family.

I made a home out of what could easily be seen as just temporary, and I will always be happy that I did. I hung posters on my walls, filled my bulletin board with tickets, pictures and postcards, and turned my temporary housing into a home that I will be more than a little sad to leave come the end of the year. I know that dorms, for most, are just an inconvenient reality and a necessity for most freshman. It seems that too often students can’t wait to get an apartment, live somewhere else, or are just waiting for the day they can buy a house. I’m excited for that day, too, because in a perfect world, my home would be more than 100 square feet, but in the meantime, it’s my small piece of a big world.

I’ve let myself become comfortable here, in the sense that my common room is basically my living room and I have no shame in wearing both pajama pants and slippers when sitting in there. I’ve let myself become comfortable on public transportation and walking around this grand new place I call home. I’ve become comfortable by learning the bus stops and street names. I still, of course, am far from knowing everything, and in my entire four years, probably will still be far from knowing everything. However, I’m making a true and honest effort to really become comfortable in my new home instead of tightly holding onto the home I’ve left. While yes, this isn’t where I grew up and my oldest friends have only known me for six months, the feeling of getting off the plane at the airport and finally getting off the train in front of my dorm building only felt like one thing: coming home.

Be fluid in your feelings of home, find home within your campus, within your friend group, and yes, even within your dorm. Hang up your posters, organize your stuff, and when you unlock your door, it may just feel like coming home.