First off, I have a job on campus with the school I'm attending, so, over the summer, they offer me housing and I get paid to do my job. I have to buy groceries and pay other living expenses, but none of the rent or electricity or water situations. Then there are the college kids who come home briefly and go on crazy summer vacations (like Cancun, or Lutheran Youth Retreat Camp). Then there are those that come home and get a summer job. Then, there are the college summer home bums. Regardless, all college students (undergrads, at least) will, at some point over at least one of their summers, come home.
Coming home after being in college for so long is kind of a surreal feeling. As you set your dates and pack your bags, you remember all the great things about going home. Home-cooked food, doing your laundry, helping your mom in her flower garden, taking your little cousins to the park after school, going out on the lake at your best friend's house. And you think to yourself, Man, those were some good times. And you love it. You can't wait. Campfires in the backyard with marshmallows, fireworks on the 4th of July, eating watermelon out on the back porch and trying to see who could spit the seeds the farthest, going to the county fair and getting some fried Oreos. You even think you'll be looking forward to some chores that have been begging for some attention, like painting the shed or mowing the grass, if the weather's nice.
Pictured above: An essential part of any summer, ever.
And then, you get home. The first couple days, you're star-struck. My first couple days were spent running around everywhere and doing all kinds of things. The first day I was back, I went and helped my mom out with her preschool's graduation ceremony. It was fun. I set up decorations and the cake, cookies, and punch for the reception afterwards, I did my mom's hair, I finished making the programs for the event, I cleaned things up afterwards, served people punch, and even took request forms for the summer school program. The second day was fun, too, because we had some running around in town to do. My dad got fitted for a tux for my sister's wedding (which, by the way, is the main reason I'm home right now), we went and got supplies to brew beer for the wedding, and we went to the laundromat, which was actually fun since I could gossip with my mom and we had errands to run between loads.
When I do laundry in college, I try to clean every piece of laundry I possibly can...
But, then, when you run out of errands to run and fun things to do, the reality of where you are starts to sink in. You remember why you didn't like being home in the first place, why you felt the need to go off to college and leave. You see the broken washer, being used as a storage table in the back room. You see your bedroom being used as a second attic/litter box/bedroom for your cat. Your bed is covered in stained sheets, old stuffed animals from your childhood, and a ton of random things your parents couldn't find a spot for or just didn't want to take out to the shed, yet. You find the floor torn up and being redone. You end up spending three days cleaning up after these people, doing dishes, putting away laundry, dusting and sweeping up the ash everywhere. You eventually can't seem to go anywhere or do anything because there's nowhere to go and nothing to do. You're going stir crazy because you don't have a car or any friends in the area, anymore. Somehow, anyone who matters to you has moved up in to the mountains, or they just really don't care enough about you to tell you where they are.
And that's when you start to feel alone, and bored all the time. No, it's not that there aren't things around the house that still don't need to be done, it's just you want some sort of freedom. You're stuck in the middle of being perpetually forced into choredom, or succumbing to straight-up boredom. It's almost like you're a hamster in a wheel who thought he was going somewhere whenever he ran, but then he started truly noticing that his surroundings were never changing as he ran. No matter how hard and how fast he ran, he was stuck in the same spot.
This hamster, however, is going somewhere. Little BA...
That's how it feels to come home after college. You've been away for so long, in a different place, on a different schedule, constantly surrounded by different stimuli. But the longer you're away from home and the more attached you become to the place you don't call home, the less welcome you feel when you actually go home...
Sorry, I know that was depressing, but it's kind of how I've been feeling, as I've been home for almost a week. I've also noticed that I snack more when I'm home, and I watch more TV (which isn't saying much, since I don't really intentionally watch TV when I'm at school).
