What Going Home for the Weekend Taught Me

There is a life that exists outside of the college campus bubble

Last year, when I was a freshman, I refused to even entertain the thought of leaving campus to visit home. I was beyond excited to be at school, experiencing new things and living my own life. I referred to college as my new home and was proud of the life I created here almost to a fault.

After returning to my hometown for the summer and realizing just how much I appreciate aspects of my life there, I had a hard time re-adjusting to the campus climate. It was especially difficult to adjust to how fast-paced it had become since my very relaxed freshman year during the peaks of the pandemic. I began to wish for my favorite home cooked meal, a lazy Sunday morning spent with my dog, or a drive in my car listening to my favorite music. This feeling of homesickness was new to me and, quite frankly, scared me. Did I not like it here anymore? Why would I ever think of going back to my hometown when college was my new home? 

A couple of weeks ago, I found the opportunity to return back to my hometown in the Milwaukee area for a long weekend. Not only was it exactly the reset I needed, but a weekend away from school helped me to re-realize there is a world that exists outside of college.

I think it can be said that college campuses are their own little world, home to a population of people all the same age, all pursuing similar goals, going to the same places and doing the same things. For so long, I appreciated that I had something, if not many things, in common with every person on this campus. We are our own community and I love being a part of it. But when you are in a bubble, it is easy to get wrapped up in everything that exists within that bubble. It feels so normal here to believe that a test, an issue with a friend, or some other day-to-day stressor is an ‘end-of-the-world’ kind of deal because we are all dealing with the same things. Like most problems, the root of the matter seems to be comparison and when there is a pool of 40,000 other people just like you, it is easy to find something to feel like you’re lacking.

Going home for the weekend reminded me there is a bigger picture. As I sat at a local coffee shop working on an essay, I became captivated by the lives of the other people there–little children sneaking bites of their parents’ pastries, adults on their lunch breaks, old friends catching up over a cup of coffee, and elderly men putting together a puzzle together. It seems so simple, but these people reminded me that there is a world outside of college. All of these individuals have their own stories, struggles and triumphs each day, probably so different from my own. As I watched all these people in their various stages of life, I was reminded of what a small percentage of my life my years in college will take up. Suddenly, I found it laughable to think that anything I had been stressing about in the prior weeks was that big of a deal. My time in college is too brief to spend comparing my experience to others when I should be soaking up what the unique and exciting chapter of life I am in.

On returning back to campus, I felt the same love for it I had freshman year, feeling grateful for the years I will get to spend here. I have made it a priority to enjoy my time here, not letting small stressors take too much of a hold over me. In the grand scheme of things, I myself am so small and what seems like the end of the world is only one page of thousands in the story of my life.

I hope that as many of us return home for breaks, we are able to slow down and find an appreciation for whatever phase of life we may be in.