Returning home for the first time after leaving for college for the first time was interesting! The first time was a short four days, and I was just recently home for a week for Thanksgiving. It went by so quickly that it barely felt like I was there. It was so nice to catch up with my friends and family, but I felt like I had barely gotten resettled at home when it was time to leave again. I think that winter break will feel different since it’s a whole month long, and I hope to spend that time catching up with friends and family.
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 It’s weird to realize that you spend more time in a dorm than at the place you call home, and that some of your best friends are people you only met a few months ago. Friendship in college is a beautiful thing; you can bond over the broken shower, the funky smell in the hallway, or the fact that someone else is also doing homework in the common room at one in the morning. Living in close quarters leads to relationships forming rather quickly, even if that relationship is just a close acquaintance.Â
On the other hand, I have my friends that are quite literally hundreds of miles away and remain a part of my life, at least weekly if not daily, but in a much different way than before: through text and phone calls rather than in class or after school. One fear I had going to college was that I would slowly lose touch with the friends I had grown up with, no matter how hard I tried to maintain them. And when I got to college, I started to feel like I was living a double life: one in Ohio and one in Austin. It made me feel uneasy, and I was scared that things would be different at home when we all came back. I’ve come to realize and appreciate the beauty in an evolving friendship because the truth is that change is inevitable and some people will come in and out of your life. But there are some people who will always remain a part of your life, even if that means less frequently and that the nature of the friendship has altered a bit.Â
The previous breaks have been interesting because I typically only had a few hours to catch up with a friend before we were off on our separate ways again. But that time has become even more precious than before, and I don’t take any time that we have together for granted. And the fact that each of us are growing, in separate places and in different ways, but we can still come together and understand and support one another, is something I am really grateful for. And the fact that in a small school on a hill in rural Ohio, I’ve gotten to know people from California to New Jersey, all who make life on the hill so much brighter, is something I also feel really fortunate to have in my life. The first semester of college has definitely been one bumpy roller coaster, and navigating this challenging phase in my life has taught me a lot. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that though the nature of a friendship may change over time, one thing will always remain the same: the love we have for one another.