As we approach Spring Break, we are entering the home stretch of this school year. For a college freshman, this is a huge deal; we are about to survive finish our first year of college. Yeah, it was only the first year, so most of us did not learn much, as we were in gen-eds or level 100 classes. However, we learned something that was not on the syllabus: how to call our college a second home.
For most of us, our family is incredibly important, so, moving out was an emotional ride. The first week was lonely, and our best friend was our mother on the other end of the phone. The residents across your hall, the people you bump into in the cafeteria, the students in your classes: all faceless strangers who want nothing to do with you. But then, the anxiety sets in when you notice how happy your home friends are without you.
It sucks.
However, something amazing happens at around week two. Those faceless people in the halls, cafeterias, and classrooms start to become recognizable. You both realize how often you see each other, and a simple head nod eventually turns into a "hello" or "how are you?". After some time, conversations about your home life arise, and some similarities are drawn. Like, for some coincidental reason, you're all crazy horror movie buffs. Suddenly, that tattooed kid from Milwaukee becomes less scary, and his quiet roommate becomes extremely relatable because somehow, you found someone who enjoys golf as much as you.
You begin to appreciate life away from home. The independence and new friendships start to make the mundane welcome week worth it. All of a sudden, your long conversations with your mom are brief, and you do most of the talking because you cannot keep in your excitement of the people you met. Gradually, you start to appreciate your home friends and their happiness too, even though it is the first time in years you have been away from each other for this long.
Time flies and it is suddenly November. You head home for the first time since August, but you immediately want to return. In fact, the first thing you do is create a group chat titled "Ohana" because you guys cannot stand the thought of not talking to each other. At the Thanksgiving dinner table, you tell your relatives about your new friends like they have been in your life forever. You share plans of setting up a Christmas tree in your future roommates' bedroom the day you get back. Foggy graveyard walks become something more than a scene in a movie as you share your personal stories, just a few of the many stories you have. You also remind your parents about that one girl you met at orientation and how incredible her singing is, that same girl who became your best friend. You try to explain the weird things you do and say like "Mason, get off that escalator!" and "I'm going slap happy!" followed with a slap across the face, but you cannot. You laugh to yourself, as your family simply does not understand, but that does not matter. In fact, no one in the entire university quite understands what you guys are doing, but it does not matter. Those weird moments make you so happy.
You're so happy.
And you've never realized that you could be happy enough to call college, "home".
