The way that spring semester is broken up is certainly better than the fall. You get a nice week-long break in the middle of the semester to give you a little taste of summer to motivate you for the remainder of the semester. However, this usually means that you will be missing an important family holiday — Easter.

Obviously, everyone has their own family traditions, but I'd like to tell you about mine. Every year — without fail — I would wake up to my own little personalized Easter basket filled with an assortment of candy and fun items like a cute new shirt or sandals. After eating half of my chocolate bunny, I'd run upstairs and put on a new spring dress that would make me feel fancy for church. My family and I would go to the Easter service at my church and then come home and change into shorts. The rest of the family would later join us and we would have a feast of lasagna and lamb chops. To end the festive day, we would have a huge Easter egg hunt in the yard that had eggs that contained anything from jelly beans to $20 bills. Although we stopped doing the egg hunts after my cousins and I reached high school, we still used this time to bond as a family and create memories that will last forever.

Knowing that I could not go home for Easter my freshman year was very difficult. I felt like I would be the only one stuck at school since all my friends seemed to live only hours away.

"Where was I going to find a meal that was even remotely in comparison to what I would be having at home? Who would actually want to go to church with me? Is anyone as homesick as I am?"

To my surprise, there were a lot of people feeling the same way. We woke up on Easter morning, put on our best sundresses and went to church. After this, we decided we needed a good meal for the holiday instead of the smelly ham that the dining hall would probably be serving. Eventually, we found ourselves at a nice restaurant downtown laughing and talking about our families traditions for the holiday. At this moment, I felt at home on Easter.

We now have a tradition of going to church together and then treating ourselves to our own Easter feast every year. It is not what we are used to and it is hard being away from family, but I would not want to celebrate in any other way. To me, this is family.