Just about everyone is back from college now. Whether it's for a week before that summer internship starts or for the entire summer before Autumn quarter begins (to those spending all two or three months at home...I salute you) acclimating back to living at home can be a weird and interesting experience.
Here are the twelve stages of adjusting back to being home:
First stage: Excitement to be home
Mom! Dad! Brother! Sister! It just feels so good to be around your family again. Suddenly you wonder why you even left in the first place. For a brief second (and I mean BRIEF) you even consider just commuting for the rest of your years in college. It just feels so wrong being away from your family all the time. Don't even get me started on what it's like being back in your bed. No mattress pad could ever live up to the worn-in bed you left behind. You can't even contain your happiness, swaddled up in your favorite quilt with your mom just an obnoxious yell away.
Second stage: Reversion back to High School thinking
Suddenly it's like you're back in high school again. Your mom is asking for all your dirty laundry, your dad is making you an omelet in the morning before he goes to work, you and your brother bicker over who gets the TV remote. For a moment, it's actually kind of fun. You can pretend you didn't just go through finals and that your future lies before you and that eventually you're going to have to learn how become adult...no you don't have to think about that right now! Just eat your omelet and watch reruns of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Third stage: Forgetfulness of responsibilities
What is a job? What is a scholarship application? What are pants? All these things that were important to remember a few days ago are no longer at the front of your brain. Instead you push all of these responsibilities aside and hit next episode on your current Bachelorette binge.
Fourth stage: Seeing things that aren't there
You wake up one day and when you look in the mirror you jump back. Who IS that? So maybe it has felt like you were back in high school, but you're getting so sucked into that way of life you start to think like you really are back in high school. Are those braces? You poke at a pimple that suddenly popped up in the middle of your forehead. You look down at your phone, no text messages from cute boys (okay well that hasn't really changed...). This isn't good.
Fifth stage: Confusion of your place
You can't just walk out there door whenever you want to. It was only a week ago that if your best friend suddenly decided they wanted Russian Dumplings from your favorite place at one in the morning, that you could just go because I mean, dumplings. Now you have to readjust to telling someone where you are going all the time.
Sixth stage: Realization of priorities
You realize it's time for you and your best friends to stop gossiping about all your former high school classmates and actually do the things you have to get done. It's just so hard to concentrate at home...
Seventh stage: Need to get out
Oh God, is it just you or are all your One Direction posters starting to close in on you? Being at home is great, you love being around your family and seeing all of your old friends. Yet in college you found (or at least started to) the person you need to be and at home it is just too easy to let yourself slack off and even let yourself fall back into your old high school habits *shiver*. You realize you are starting to out grow the childhood version of yourself.
Final stage: Remembering where you come from, but keeping your eyes on where you are going
It's time to get back into the real world, whether this entire process happened over the course of a few months or a few days. I think we all get to the same place eventually. You're growing up, I know that's really crazy. Some of us may not want to grow up and others may feel like they are not ready, but it's time. Time to start, at least. Home will always be there, so leave in good faith knowing your family will support you wherever to go.
Oh, and make sure to leave the phantom braces behind on your way out.
