After eighteen and a half years of growing up in the same house, in the same city, with the same people at school, and my family always close by, I finally left the nest. I began college at Florida State University this summer, and since the summer semester was only six weeks compared to the longer fall and spring semesters, my transition wasn’t as major as if I’d been home for the summer and started in the fall, like most people do. Still, moving away from home for the first time signaled a major change in my life: for the next four (or more, depending on where I got after my undergraduate degree) years, and potentially ever again, I won’t truly be living at home.
Now, I’m home for a short two week break between summer semester and fall, and it’s odd to be home again because even though I wasn’t gone for a long time, I still experienced that move away. Most of my stuff is stored at school now, so packing to come home was more like packing for a two-week vacation. My friends as me if it’s “weird to be back home” and it is, but mostly since most of my belongings are somewhere else now and I’m mentally ready to be back at school. But in another way, it isn’t so weird because it’s almost like I’m back in the same routine I was in for 18 years before.
These two weeks, before going through sorority recruitment, beginning the fall semester, and moving away from a longer time, really do make it the calm before the storm. I’ve been shopping and packing and spending time with my friends who are still home, and while in the short run I’m getting ready for my freshmen year of college, I’m also beginning the ‘college’ chapter of my life. By the time I come back home again, it’ll be for a holiday break or a visit home, where I’ll just be visiting again, with all my things and heart still in Tallahassee.
I think it’s hard on my parents for me to be back for a little while, since they had to let me go for the summer, and they’ll say goodbye for longer this time, so it’s nice to get to spend some time with them and be here to see my little brother start his next year of high school.
As cheesy as it sounds, I’m cherishing these two weeks even if they are a little slower than my summer has been, because I know things are going to start going real fast real soon.
