"If you come to Miami for college and there is a Hurricane, just take the train up to my place and we can ride it out here." My Aunt told me during a discussion before I even got accepted to UM. Okay, she's gonna be prepared then in the event a storm comes, right?

It's Saturday, September 2nd, and my family is in town for labor day weekend. I had been at the football game in the heat all day and I am realizing that they weren't lying about game days being exhausting. Anyways, I'm relaxing at the hotel with my family who I've missed as we're joined by my aunt and uncle, who I'm lucky enough to see pretty regularly because they live fairly close to campus. Hurricane Irma is so far out over the ocean and away from land that the storm is surely bored to death. It is beginning to march toward our home though at this point so we casually review our hurricane plan and move on with life because there is absolutely no way the storm will hit.

Well, not so fast. The forecast never improved and after a discussion with my relatives in South Florida and family at home, we pulled the trigger and decided to flee home to Nashville.

The next day when the forecast got even worse and several days of classes were cancelled, it was a mad dash to get flights home. Everyone seemed to be on the phone with their parents, scrambling to find a seat to safety. Price gouging was real as people paying over a thousand bucks to get a one-way ticket, often with multiple stops along the way.

I had a stop in Orlando myself. Nervous was an understatement. I could not miss the connection. Extra seats? Hell would freeze over before I got a another seat home if my relatives and I missed the connecting flight.

And we almost missed the connection. We made it by a hair. So many flights were fleeing Irma in South Florida that the air traffic tower couldn't handle all the extra flights and the line to take off lasted over an hour. I had to slide into Southwest Airline's DMs in order to make sure they held the flight home. When I did make the flight, I had never felt better in a middle seat because I was heading home.

The irony is that I never felt homesick even as college began and I was way from home for an extended amount of time for the first time in my life. Throw in a Hurricane and this Cane wanted to be home again with my family. Stress brings out weird emotions and thoughts. In this crazy time for every member of this #CanesFam I just needed a bit of stability at home. I needed a home cooked meal, I needed to feel fall weather, I needed to drive my own car again and I needed to use my own tennis racquet again. I even went to my old high school's football game. Please judge me.

In times of hardship, we need to focus on our simple pleasures that make us happy and distract us from the elements. Some things are out of our control, so we just have to make do and find something to pass the time until our lives return to normal.