[AJ.]

This is just something that I was sent a few days ago and I really liked it so I thought I would share it with everyone.


College Freshmen:

A year has past and now we stand on the brink of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything yet nothing being the same. In a few weeks we will reluctantly give our hugs and, fighting the tears, say goodbye to the people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say goodbye to before we ever left. We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends. We will go back to places we came from and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even thought it has been months, it will seem like only yesterday.

As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become. You suddenly realize that the things that were most important to you a year ago don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand. Who will you call first? Where are you going to work? Who will be at the party Saturday night? What has everyone been up to? Who from school will you keep in touch with? How long before you actually start missing people bargaining in without calling or knocking? Who will get breadsticks with you at three in the morning? How long until you adjust to sleeping in a room by yourself, or how long before you realize your three best friends aren't in the bed next to your room?

Then you realize how much things have changed, you realize the hardest part of college is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind. In the matter of one day's traveling time, we will leave our world of living next door to our best friends, walking across campus to eat, instant messenger, 8:00 classes, and perpetual procrastination to a world that will seem foreign to us despite the fact that we have lived in it for nineteen years.

But it is different now... We now know the meaning of true friendship. We know whom we have kept in touch with over the past year and whom we hold dearest to our hearts. We've left our high school worlds to deal with the real world. We have had our hearts broken, we've fell in love, we've helped our best friends through the toughest times of their lives, something their even best friends at home couldn't be there for. We've stayed up all night just to be there for a friend. We've partied the night away, doing stupid stuff, but we were always there for each other afterwards. There have been times when we've felt so helpless being hours away from home when we know our families or friends needed us most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.

A few weeks from now we will leave. A few weeks from now we take down our pictures, and pack up our clothes. No more going next door to do nothing for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose random emails and phone calls will bring us to laughter and tears this summer. We will take our memories and dreams and put them away for now, saving them for our return to this world.

A few weeks from now from now we will arrive. A few weeks from now we will unpack our bags and have dinner with our families. We will drive over to our best friend's house and do nothing for hours on end. We will return to the same friends whose random emails and phone calls have brought us laughter and tears over the past year. We will unpack old memories and dreams that have been put away for the past year.

A few weeks from now we will dig deep inside to find the strength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close. And somehow, in someway, we will find our place between these two worlds.

In a few weeks.... are you ready?

[BWyatt]

I'm not looking forward to this ordeal at all. My parents and I don't exactly see eye-to-eye, so I'm hoping I can spend a ton of time just working this summer. I may get a second job just so I don't have to see them very much.

Being not the highly social type, I won't really be missing anyone over the summer, but I still anticipate a very difficult time for me. Grr.

[OneWithTheMud]

How true. I've been contemplating all of this stuff the past week or so. It's coming to an end so quickly and it went by so so fast. ....and I will make the journey homeward on Wednesday, April 27th.

[bobthecockroach]

I go between college and home on a daily basis, completely changed my "friend set" during my last year of highschool anyway, and have no real friendships with anyone at school.

I don't say this to take away from the article, but simply to say that my situation is much different.

Though, really, I don't suppose my situation is of great importance to anyone that doesn't know me in person, so I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this post is afterall.

[AJ.]

It was kinda true for me but only in some parts.
I'll be fine sleeping in my own room, I do it when I go home anyway and it will be nice not having to deal with a room mate and her boyfriend. She was nice and I'm glad I didn't get stuck with about any of the other girls on my floor but I'm not going to miss her.
Where it talks about knowing the meaning of true friendship is about the only place that is really true for me. The friends I had growing up, one I've been great friends with since kindergarten, are at the point where I don't want to spend anytime with them because they drive me insane, always wanting something from me, mostly using me for the things that I have, and them demanding stuff, I don't want to deal with it anymore. I'll miss the things that I do with the church down here and some of the people, but I'll see them again next year so it's not a huge deal for me, I don't get attached to people that easily.
One reason I am looking forward to going home is to see a few of my true friends. One I have only seen a few times because he is in Chicago and it is hard for me to get up there to see him and the other is at home who I always have movie nights with and just talk with.
I guess that is all I am going to say, just like the post above this, there is no point really to this post either.

[marvinranch]

that coming back to your old room bit doesn't exactly work if younger siblings took over your room I will be moving into a new room in my parent's basement! But hey, I get my own bathroom down there! yeee-haw!

[AJ.]

Originally Posted by marvinranch

that coming back to your old room bit doesn't exactly work if younger siblings took over your room I will be moving into a new room in my parent's basement! But hey, I get my own bathroom down there! yeee-haw!

True, my little brother took over my room, he move a stero, tv, and other stuff over there. He is going to be kicked out if he is not out by the time I get home. He wanted it because it is bigger and the bed is bigger too. I still have to share 1 1/2 bathrooms with my family but it is so much better than sharing with 60+ girls, who are really dirty, and having to wear sandals.

[PianoMan]

Excellent post. A lot of truth in that.

[Ryan Akers]

And wow, I caught that post in the gut a little late.

How true the feelings in that. They don't prepare you for the harsh transition of being alone when you return home.

Man...reading that depressed me....lol

[JP2_Rocks]

wow, that was right on. it is very hard to balance two lives. and as hard as it is, the reality is that anyone living away at school will come home eventually and have to completely change friends, activities, jobs, the whole thing. it's great being home, don't get me wrong. i love my fam as well -- all 9 siblings and my parents -- but i always feel like i'm starting over when i come home. having to start a job all over again, even if it's the same one, and re-learning schedules, and trying to keep everything the same with friends, when we've all changed.

it's a challenge, but it's part of life, and part of growing up. and because of that, i embrace it. i also think that God uses it to help keep us from becoming too attached to things. it's hard. but in a just a few years, we may have to move to who knows where for a job, and we may see our friends at school rarely, if at all. it's all part of growing and learning. but it's still hard...

peace,
chris

[BWyatt]

Originally Posted by BWyatt

I'm not looking forward to this ordeal at all. My parents and I don't exactly see eye-to-eye, so I'm hoping I can spend a ton of time just working this summer. I may get a second job just so I don't have to see them very much.

Being not the highly social type, I won't really be missing anyone over the summer, but I still anticipate a very difficult time for me. Grr.

This just in: My prediction was correct. I hate living at home again.

I'm getting my own place in about 60 days. Let the countdown begin.