Home is where you live, where you are comforted by family, where you return to after a long days work, where you hangout and relax to escape the real world, and for most college students, where you return to on breaks from school.
After attending the University of New Haven for three years and traveling home on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring breaks, I wonder if UNH has begun to feel more like home than the one I grew up in.
Nothing is better than going home right? It means you don’t have to go to class and instead get to watch endless hours of TV, hoping there is a Law and Order SVU marathon on.
However, while you are lying on that couch that has comforted you for 18 years, what if instead of feeling relaxed, you begin to feel anxious wanting to get back to the norms that you have settled into at UNH?
As a full-time student I spend more time in CT than I do in NY, so isn’t it only fair to call the place I spend the majority of my time home? On breaks I live out of a suitcase because they are too short to worry about putting my stuff away in drawers or my closet, and I spend most my time doing laundry to save a few bucks during the semester. I am not used to the new schedules my family has with work and school themselves, and feel more like a guest than a resident. I don’t wish to say I have turned my back on the home I grew up in in NY, but I welcome the future possibilities that UNH presents me, and even my sweaters feel more at home in their draws in Soundview.
Growing up does bring change. Moving on from that change has brought me to feel more at home in CT. I have a schedule that keeps me busy, and a team, friends and roommates who all collectively act as my support system and my fill-in family.
Throughout my life I am sure I will have many “homes” in various different states, so while NY was good to me as I grew up and my biological family will always be there for me, CT has become a new home, and the many friends I have made have become another family.
I look forward to seeing my family, having no hw and eating home cooked meals, but after a couple days of bliss, I miss CT and the life I have created there – however, I never miss the food served in Bartels.
I am glad to be back at UNH to start the Spring semester, I could do without the hw, but remember that taking classes only open doors for an exciting future, and there are always other options of places to eat.
