Why does it always seem like whenever we finally catch up to what is going on around us, our surroundings change? Is it life trying to get back at us? Some higher power, having fun at our expense? Or is it just that we crave that comfort of routine, and won’t stop adjusting and modifying until we get it? Whatever it is, we constantly try to find those things that make us feel like we are living a “normal” life.

Imagine how you feel when school starts in the fall. You are uprooted from your family and home friends, only to dive into a completely new space. Even if it isn’t your freshman year or the first year away from home, there’s bound to be readjustment time. You work your way through it, with some minor bumps and meltdowns along the way. But there are people around you to help with that. And your family is a phone call or a text away and they visit when they can.

You settle into a new normal.

Until it’s already finals time. The first 14 weeks of the semester went by in the blink of an eye. Everyone is talking about plans for the month of vacation coming up. The long nights begin. Caffeine and textbooks become more like your family than you could have ever thought. You and your friends cry about the current quality of life. You hope and wish and pray for good grades. Then that time finally comes. You’re homeward bound. You kind of feel like a stranger in your own house for a bit. Maybe your parents remodeled or moved some furniture around or maybe your favorite food isn’t stocked because no one else eats it. It’s still home and you readjust.

You settle into a new normal.

Until it’s time to go back to school for the spring. Then you go through the whole cycle all over again. It seems almost unreal when summer rolls around. You realize you have months to yourself. This summer would be a summer like no other. Your sister has to undergo surgery. Your mom will be staying with her. Your family is divided in two for a month and a half. The drives from Pennsylvania to Delaware to visit become second nature. Your home life changes. The chores are divvied up differently. There’s much more independence and self-sufficiency. You travel all across the east coast to play softball, and you do it mostly on your own. You find yourself calling your mom just to hear her voice or to cry or to hear her say goodnight or even just to sit on the phone and listen to the conversation between her and the nurses. You ask to talk to your sister to know that she’s still there and that she’s okay and to make sure she knows you love her, even if you can’t be there with her. You get used to it. You make it work.

You settle into a new normal.

Until everyone is under one roof. The summer begins to wind down. The Back-to-School supplies show themselves. The cycle begins again.