With the fall semester beginning comes new college freshmen, all of them new to school and trying to figure out everything that comes with being in college.
I am a freshman this year, and if you’re like me and happen to live far from home, it can be annoying when people go home every weekend. The first week I was here, everyone went home for the weekend. It was weird to me, because we just got here. Shouldn’t people wait to adjust to their environments?
But now I can see why people want to go home. There are a lot of pros, such as being fed a home-cooked meal, seeing your family and pets. On the other hand, there are a lot of cons as well. A lot of people say you should wait at least a month to go home. That makes sense to me, because otherwise you’re not going to get used to living in the dorms. You’re not going to know what it is like to truly be on your own.
I feel that if you go home too soon, you’re just going to make yourself more homesick, because you have no sense of what it’s like to not be home.
You need to get used to the new surroundings and grow from it. If you’re going home every weekend, you’re not learning how to cope with being away from home.
Do not get me wrong, you’re still going to get homesick now matter how used to living away from home you are. But people are just making things harder on themselves. You’re still depending on your family and not learning to be an independent adult.
One of the best things about college is moving away from home and being independent. College lets you make your own decisions and learn from them without the influence of your parents. You get to learn how to be an adult.
But if you’re going home every weekend, are you really learning to be independent? You’re probably not learning how to make decisions on your own. Your parents are most likely still helping manage your time, manage your money and probably help with a large portion of your adult responsibilities.
I understand it is really hard being on your own. It’s probably a new thing to a lot of people and can be really scary. If I could, I would go home a lot more. But that’s not an option for me. Honestly, I’m probably a lot better for it. I’m learning how to do things on my own, how to deal with being an adult and all the responsibilities that come with that.
It’s not that I’m jealous of everyone who can go home whenever they want. I just feel like a lot of people aren’t growing as an adult and not taking advantage of all the good that can come from being away from home.
I know you love and miss your family, and they love and miss you too. But they’re going to still be home waiting for you, no matter what. So just wait a little longer before going home, and learn to be on your own and cope with missing home.
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