To my friends who are already done with classes for the year (while I’m sitting here with two weeks left):

I appreciate your posts about the lifelong friends you have made, and how sad you are to be leaving your home for the past 9 months. I really do. I love the feeling of jealousy that overcomes me as I realize that I still have a full round of finals to crush, and that doesn’t even include all of the end of the year projects and papers that are also due the week before. But don’t worry, I’m glad to hear about how much you missed your dog and parents and sisters. I miss my family too, but I'm being patient. I know that this final push at school will make the final homecoming so much more worth it. Longing makes the heart grow stronger or something, right? No, actually. I don’t love any of it. I want to be home too just like everyone else.

Please don’t text me to ask when I’m going to be home or to invite me to a party to kick off the summer. My summer hasn’t started quite yet. In fact, I’ve just realized that I’ve got a 20 page lab report to revise before I can even think about putting a bikini on and laying by the beach. If you are going to try and talk to me, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention anything about the sun, or relaxation, or even how late you got to sleep in this morning (unless you’re working: then feel free to complain all you want about how you’re not a morning person). I’ve got two weeks of madness in front of me, and I’d like to be able to get through it without longingly looking off into the distance thinking about that place called home that I haven’t returned to in so long.

Truth is – I can’t wait until it is finally my turn to post about the wonderful roommates I’ve lived with this year, but more than that I can’t wait until I finally get to walk through my front door and give my mom a huge hug (after saying hi to the dog, of course). I can’t wait to have my first family dinner again, and hear all of the stories that they haven’t had the chance to tell me since Christmas. I can’t wait to laugh with my sisters about all of the weird things that happen in high school. There really is no place quite like home.

So, just give it two weeks, please. And in return I won’t post about my two spring breaks while you’re in the middle of mid-terms. I think that’s a pretty fair trade.