Someone wise once said, "Sometimes the best way to appreciate something is to be without it for a while." Coming to college brought a whirlwind of new experiences and the chance to live (even a little bit) independently. Things we once took for granted are now learned to be cherished. Here are a few items we, as college students, wish we would have appreciated before the beginning of this life chapter:

Home-cooked meals

Mom's spaghetti, Dad's barbecue chicken, Grandma's cookies, you name it. Anything is better than even the best meal served at the dining hall. You come home and inhale it like you're at the last supper. The best part? It's free.

Having your own room

Appreciate it while you can. Soon enough, you will be sharing a room half the size of your home bedroom with 1-3 other people. There's always a time when someone will be in the bathroom when you need to shower, or having friends over when you need to study, etc. The silver lining is that these will be the best friends you have, especially during your first year.

Free textbooks

Wasn't it great when the only thing you had to worry about was what color book cover you were going to use to protect your textbook for the school year? Now it's, "Do I really need this $144 access code for my math class?" Yes, yes you do.

Spending your parents' money

Getting paid your own money? Fantastic. Spending your own money? Legitimate torture. If we had a running receipt of how much money we received from our parents over the years, we could probably own that all-inclusive cruise ship we've had bookmarked on our homepage since September.

Convenient laundry services

Realizing it's time to do laundry is the worst. So much time, so many clothes, and spending your FLEX dollars on something you don't even want to do? The struggle couldn't be more real. Coming home with a full bag of laundry is awesome because 1. your mom does it for you, 2. they always smell nice, and 3. It's free.

Most importantly, sleep

Hands down, the best part of any day. We've learned that bedtimes were for a reason and getting over seven hours of sleep on any given day is an accomplishment in and of itself. Though we wish we would have appreciated all of those extra hours of sleep in high school, we needed to know for ourselves that the amount of sleep really does determine tomorrow's attitude.

There are many things we should appreciate, not only now, but forever. These are things we will teach our kids and their kids, but we know firsthand that the only way to appreciate something, is to be without it for a while.