Fall break is the beautiful four day period after midterms when a heap of stress is lifted off a busy college student's shoulders. But those four days never seem long enough. The first semester of college for many can be a sad but exciting time with lots of firsts. I, for one, hate being away from home. I hate not seeing my family every day and not coming home to my dog greeting me. I hate not having my big queen-sized bed and own bathroom, and I really hate not being able to sit on my sister's bed with her at 3 am talking about our lives.

I get that its college and everyone feels this way. That doesn't make it any easier. The first semester of college is hard. It's hard to get used to not living at home anymore. It's hard to not talk to your parents every day. It's hard to look into the future to try and see what lies ahead, but to be honest, nobody knows. It's supposed to get better, right?

After going home this past weekend, I did not want to go back. I hope that the next break maybe I will start to miss school, and maybe I will want to go back. But for now, all I want to do is go back to my family.

I know that there will come a point where this feeling of homesickness will go away. I know that it will get easier. But for now, I will remind myself that it's okay to be homesick and feel sad. It's okay to miss my parents. It's okay to not want to grow up.

I will keep moving forward, counting down the days until the next fall break. I will be sad and homesick, but I will also have fun. I will study and try my best in school, and I will spend time with friends and try to make Charlottesville my second home.

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