Going away to college is a huge step in any young adult's life, it forces them out of their comfort zone and into adulthood. College is more than 14 games of beer pong, shotgunning 30-racks and drowning your problems in whatever fifth is in arms reach. Aside from the partying lifestyle college includes, it's the plan for your future. It's a confusing time, you go off and spend four months in a new town just to spend another month back in your hometown then you're shipped off for another four months then you return home for the next three and the cycle repeats.
You come home for Winter break thinking you'll sink right back into your old life and that's when reality hits, you don't and your hometown is no longer your home. Yeah it's where you grew up and made all your friends, graduated high school and got your first job but in the sense of home it's not your home anymore. You're living out of bags and your house not only looks different, it feels different. You come back and realize the life you're creating for yourself is nothing compared to the life your parents made for you.
Everyone is back in town from all over the country and you realize that you were only friends with some people because you saw them every day. There is no such thing as "hanging out" because your lunch date revolves around you catching each other up to date on school, love interests and work. Your first college year is the most drastic change in your life. You go from graduating high school to finding your place in a town full of strangers. Being home makes you realize you cannot wait to get back to school and I think that was the biggest change for me, I actually couldn't wait to get back to school and see all my new friends and my new home. If you aren't excited to go back to college, you chose the wrong school. After weeks of your mom's homemade food and her doing your laundry it's time to pack your life back into a car, or plane, and head back to your new home at school.
If you're like me you feel no cringe of homesickness and you fit perfectly in the life you've begun to create for yourself. Your once beloved hometown now feels like a vacation spot rather than a home. Eventually you realize you've found your place in all of this when you see how comfortable you are on your own. You have friends you spend time with, you can drive through the city blindfolded, you know exactly where everything is and you find a place that is entirely your own. It is your home. Here's my only concern, don't make the mistake of making your home a person because everyone is temporary.
Don't get me wrong I still have memories, both good and bad, from the town I called home for twenty years but it's time to move onto greater things and realize everyone has their home and sometimes it's not the place we grew up. My heart is full of wonder and adventure, I was born to travel not stay in some mid-western town the rest of my life. I found the wanderlust in me and I intend to seek it out, I'll create my own life and my own home someday. Michigan is no longer home to me, but it will always hold a special place in my heart as well as the people in it.
The place you are meant to call home is out there waiting for you to find it.
