I love college, don't get me wrong. I love getting to pick when and what day I will have class. I love going to my classes. I love the freedom of not getting up on the weekends till 11 a.m. if that is what I choose to do. I love not having an enforced bedtime even if I regret it in the morning. One major aspect that I don't love about college that I have come to realize in my three years is that I get homesick.

For instance, at this very moment, I'm writing this article my mom just sent me a Snapchat (which we have a 282-day streak, whoop whoop). The Snapchat video is of my youngest kitten stuck high up in one of the trees in the front yard of my childhood home. I felt bad for Shadow, the kitten that was stuck, but all in all, I thought it was hilarious. I snapped back and asked my mom if Shadow got down by herself. Mom responded with snap text saying that my dad had to get the ladder to get her down. Not only then did I realize that I missed a hilarious moment but was also very, very homesick.

For the people that know me and for the folks that don't, I grew up on a little ole farm in the country and have a very deep love for my immediate family. That of which comprises of my dad, mom, older sister, me, and then my youngest brother. Present day though my oldest sister has graduated from Mizzou this past spring and is working a "big girl job" as she likes to remind us, I'm just a junior studying architecture at Mizzou, and my youngest brother is a freshman in college who moved out to California on a golf scholarship. Dad and Mom are home working, having fun, and doing what 40-year-olds do, which is drink a lot of coffee and tea for my mom.

However, at this moment I haven't been home in a month due to work, school, and then football games and it's hitting me that yep, I'm homesick. To some people, they might not get homesick. For others, you might be thinking, "You're almost 21 and you still get homesick?" However, I think it's okay to get homesick. How I see it is I have lived in the same town and on the same plot of acres all my life, that is my safe place. The place where my siblings and I played hide in go seek with walkie-talkies. The walkie talkies were so that if someone couldn't find the other, you could send out a ping and hear where they were hiding which, I did, cheated always. The place where I first learned how to ride a bike. The first place where my dad taught me how to shoot a gun. The first and only place where my parents tucked me in every single night all the way up to high school. The place where I feel safe, loved, and whole. That place is 209.8 miles from where I am right now and I miss it. Miss my oh so comfy bed, my mom, my dad, my kitten's, the country roads, and walking into my house and it just smells like fall and home.

Don't get me wrong, college is an amazing way to further your education, explore possibilities you might not have had before, and to meet new people. No matter how amazing college is you can't get wrapped up in it. You must remember where you came from JUST as much as where you are going to next.

-xx Morgan