Visiting your college roommate is almost like coming home. There isn’t really any of the awkward-ness of “can I shower now?” or “can I eat their food?” You just lived together for nine months so it seems perfectly normal to be living with them again for a week. But it is weird to see the life they have outside of college.

College is like this little bubble where all kinds of different people can come together and get along and it’s not really too weird, and you get to be friends with all these people that you would have never met otherwise.

Realizing your roommate has a life outside of studying, going to class and going out is like realizing your parents were once kids. It’s bizarre, but it also explains so much. Like when I saw how wonderfully patriotic Cedarburg, Wisconsin is, it explained why my roommate listens to “Proud to be an American” and cries every time.

It’s also kind of a step-up in the roommate pyramid because you are no longer just casual acquaintances who live together, you are friends who made a significant (aka 8-hour drive) effort to see each other. And now you’re getting to put faces to all the names you’ve heard so many times throughout the year.

So visiting your roommate's hometown is kind of an honor because you get to see all the places that make your roommate as weird as she is and why she swears up and down that Wayne's is the best restaurant in the world.