Even though my first semester of college was amazing, there was no denying the age-old saying “there’s no place like home.” And, as I waited eight hours in the Columbus Airport, I realized how much I truly missed the comforts of my house, my bed and my mom’s cooking.
In high school, all I wanted to do was escape the stifling confines of my small suburban town. I never thought that I would miss it; I truly thought that I would drive off into the distance and never look back on my cookie-cutter childhood. And I know what you’re thinking: how original. Yet now that I was 480 miles from my hometown, as much as I was trying to fight it, I really missed home. The prospect of showering without shoes on and the ability to do free laundry excited me to the core.
Oh how the tides changed!
While most of my friends packed their weekend-bags for the car ride home, I stuffed my backpack with clothes and Fiber One bars for a flight back to “Dirty Jersey.” I hadn’t seen the old place since August, when my life was crammed into storage containers and suitcases. I wondered if my room still looked the same.
Nothing about Cranford, New Jersey, however, had changed in the three months I was away. Exit 137 on the Garden State Parkway still looked just as green, and our house still smelled just like library books. It seemed as though the only thing that had changed while I was gone…was me. Not only had my hair color changed, but I felt as though I were older, wiser and a lot more “adult.”
This feeling of maturity, however, disappeared as quickly as it came—the first glimpse of Spongebob reeled me back into the memories of Saturday mornings spent curled up in my blanket eating yogurt and granola parfaits. I never realized how much I missed my living room, television and my little sister.
It’s the little things about home that really made me smile. Laying on my perfectly plump living-room couch, sleeping in my own bed, seeing my friends from high school and laughing with my family were, no doubt, the highlights of my Thanksgiving break.
Home still has a comfort that no dorm room can fulfill. As much as I love Ohio University, I’m counting down the days until I get to go back home to a place I’d never thought I’d miss.