Students who spent break at home excitedly return to NDSU

Maybe this was your first time home for break before you began college, maybe it was your fourth or fifth, but it always seems surprising to watch NDSU students happily returning to campus and hanging out with friends after break.

It’s hard for us to admit that we’re excited to be back at school. Shouldn’t we never want to leave home? Here, there are classes and responsibilities, while at home, you can spend time with old friends and let your mom do your laundry.

However, it seems for most of us that the rose-colored lens we used to get through our primary and high school days wear off pretty fast. Instead of questioning why we would want to come back to school, we start to ask, how did we ever survive without it?

The first few days home are fantastic. You get home-cooked meals that you didn’t have to make, or maybe you get to spend time with siblings who seem genuinely happy to see you. You go out to eat and catch up with an old friend. Yet, this routine gets old pretty quick.

Before you know it, you’re eating ramen just like you would at school, except now you’re doing it alone instead of surrounded by college friends equally excited to chow down on that cup-o-noodles.

Those siblings who are happy to see you quickly remember what being siblings means: not getting along or remembering a fight from ten years ago. Even those old friends you used to love spending time with quickly become people you feel you have little in common with anymore.

Maybe only one of these things happens to you, but inevitably, the boredom sets in and it can be unbearable. Even I had to learn that there is a limit to how many hours I can watch Netflix before I truly begin to lose my mind. 

Then comes the issue of spending time with your parents. You may have gone to school and learned what it means to be an adult, but to them, you’re still just their kid. If your days at school were filled with your own plans and what you wanted to do, you’re now helping drive your siblings around, run errands or taking down the holiday decorations.

This is not to say that these things aren’t exactly what kids are expected to do for their parents, but it can cramp anyone’s style a bit to spend the night grocery shopping when they usually are downtown with their friends.

Suddenly, that freedom you had hardly ever noticed was so essential to your day is gone. Soon it’s work, family and holiday festivities that have taken over your life. When everyone at home is vying for some time with you before you leave again, you realize your break isn’t really a break at all, it’s a marathon of socializing and chores.

Everybody really does need to go home every once in a while. Seeing our family and friends really is so important, they did get us through those first 18 years or so after all. 

If nothing else, going home gives us some perspective of where we are now. You think organic chemistry sucks? Try spending a night with your extended family who only talks about politics and invasive medical procedures.

So, as hard as it may be to admit: you’re a little bit happy to be back at NDSU. Your friends and free time more than make up for stressful classes and adulting, even if you can’t get free homemade food.