For many people "Home" is wherever family, friends, significant others, and their bed is. I can totally easily relate to that, but a year ago this august, "home away from home" found a new meaning. On August 12th, 2017 I moved to Starkville, away from my parents, and into my first very own apartment. My own "home."

As a freshman, I lived in a dorm on campus at my junior college, which was pretty cool but moving into my own apartment came with new never before had responsibilities.

If you've lived with your parents all your life, i'm sure you had responsibilities and or "chores" you had to do around the house. I did, and moving into my own place meant EVERYTHING was on me now. I mean, who knew unloading and loading a dishwasher, and making a bed wasn't all it took to keep an apartment clean, lol. With being in school, having a part time job, trying my best to have a social life, and only being given 24 hours a day, does not leave much time for cleaning. A dorm is a glorified shoe box, and if you've lived in one, i'm sure you can agree that it is less to clean, less to mess up, and just all around less of a responsibility.

Here I am, a year later, and I am in love with my "Home away from Home", because it is mine. I love this responsibility, because in a year's time, I have proven to not only my family, but to myself also, that I can handle this whole "adulting" thing. I am OCD, and that is something that if you know me, you know about me and it is not hard to tell, but sometimes making my bed, is the last thing on my daily "to-do" list.

SO I guess that point I am trying to make is....It is okay to leave dishes in the sink for a day because time ran out and you had plans. It is okay to not make your bed, because you know when you come home from school all you'll do is crawl right back in it. It is okay to eat off paper plates because you don't want to have to do the dishes. All of these things are beyond okay, and in no time, this will become the new "norm."

Your home away from home, wether it be a dorm, apartment, or a house, it is yours and you are allowed to do whatever you wanna do with it as long. (just make sure to clean up before company comes over, lol.) SO, if you are moving to college in the next couple of weeks, don't stress because this is just the start of a brand new, amazing chapter!