How to deal with being away from home, even when it gets hard
As a freshman who has never been away from home, I am learning to love being at school without my mind wondering back to my hometown
College Park is one of my favorite places to be in the world. I’m perfectly, and completely content being at school. My bed is more comfortable, I have more freedom, my friends live incredibly close, I have built a life there. However, sometimes things happen that make being away from home, hard.
Recently my grandpa passed away. I got the call from my mom on a Monday afternoon. With that began the complicated process of trying to get everyone in my family into one place by the middle of the week. My sister and I were thankfully easy, we go to school about seven hours south of where my grandma wanted us so we booked a train for the next day.
My grandpa and I years and years ago
My grandpa was old, he was in his late 90s and his old age was a blessing. His death, although completely devastating to my extended family and me, was not a surprise. There are so many unexpected things that can happen which make being away from home a difficult thing.
Whenever my dog goes to the vet, whenever my parents go to visit my grandparents without me, I have a fear I won’t be there when I’m needed, or I won’t be able to get home soon enough.
My grandma with her UMD barbie
Being away from home is a newfound freedom for me—I never went to summer camp or left home for more than a couple of nights at a time. Now that I am away I realize this freedom is a great thing, even if I’m not home at times when I feel needed.
My parents are adults, they have taken care of my dog when I went on sleepovers and when I didn’t want to get out of bed to take her on a walk, they can take care of her now. My grandma is an even older adult, she built the family I am lucky to be in and she has amazing children and grandchildren to take care of her, even when I’m at school and can’t visit as often as I want to.
My dog back home sporting UMD gear
I am lucky enough to be only a train ride away from home. Some of my friends both at school and from home have traveled thousands of miles to school and back, making it harder for them to get home on a moments notice if needed and like I had to.
In the back of my mind I’m aware if I had gone to school even closer to home, or if I had still been at home when this was all happening with my grandpa, I would have been a bigger help to my family, I would have been there. I know it’s okay to be gone sometimes, I can’t hover in my hometown waiting for something to go wrong. I have to go out into the world, “expand my horizons,” and every other cheesy saying about college you can imagine.
I’m not going to lie and say I won’t continue to miss my grandpa and worry about my grandma and my dog and everyone else that lives so far away from school. I am, however, going to continue to live my life at school, surrounded with friends, sleep in my amazingly comfortable bed, and enjoy my freedom. That’s how you deal with being away from home even when it’s hard, if you have to be away, be in a place you love, like College Park.