Honest accounts of what it’s really like to be home for summer break

Going home for break has its pros and cons. You get to see my friends and family you haven’t seen in a while and, of course, your dog.  But then there’s this point, when all the excitement about being home has vanished, that you begin to notice certain things about living with my parents again that are actually quite annoying.

You can’t leave my personal belongings anywhere other than my room in my house unless you want a lecture from mom.  Even though you haven’t been home for most of the semester chores await as if you’ve never left, and all of a sudden the dog needs a bath.

At college you can do what you want on your own time. It’s because of this that life there is a little more relaxed. At school we are on our own. There are no parents to hover over you.

Different students list their complaints

Third year Virginia Teach student, Jeff Krysta (20), said: “It’s the constant questioning of where I am going and what I am doing that is something that I am not faced with at college because my parents are not there.”

Third year student at Liberty University, Earl Holland (21), said: “Oh my god when my parents have to check in on me when I’m hanging out with my friends late at night that is the most annoying thing on the planet.”

Aaren Davis (20), a second year at Old Dominion University, says it’s the fact that she stays out later than her mom is used to.

“When I’m at school, even if I am just at the library, I can stay out all night if I want to.

“If I want to sleep in the library then that’s what I can do as compared to when I’m home I have a curfew or a general time that I know I should be home.”

College also comes with the freedom to plan out your day the way you want to. Aaren said: “If I wake up at eleven a.m. on a Saturday then that’s what I can do and then I can plan my day from there and go with the flow. At home I can’t do that, if my mom is up and cooking breakfast at nine, then I’ll be getting up at nine and my schedule sort of molds to hers.”

Parents, it’s not that we don’t love you, we just aren’t used to your watchful eyes anymore. Yet, how can we blame them? After all they are just trying to help. The difference between living at school and at home is that at home it’s a kind of unwritten rule to do what your parents suggest, and at school the choice is ours.

Dating is one of those big things that is much more enjoyable in the college setting. Parents aren’t there to tell you how much time you should or should not be spending with your significant other. Brianna Hamblin (20), third year at UVa, can relate: “My parents think they can still tell me what to do, I’m tired of the constant lectures and sex talks. When I’m trying to hang out with my boyfriend my mom will tell me I need to act like I’m busy so I’m not ‘always too available to my man.’”

“If I’m still lying to my parents about what I’m doing when I’m 21 then I don’t know what I’m going to do, I feel like I’ll be lying to my parents until I’m married.”

It’s not just parents that we get away from at college

When siblings are involved things can become more complicated. Brianna explains: “My brother Brandon thinks that because he’s 16 now he’s all that and he has this new cool ‘I can do anything’ attitude that I have to deal with.”

Earl, with two younger siblings in middle school, explains: “My sisters have to tell me everything that happened to them in the past three months that I’ve been gone so they are just talking my ear off the first couple of days that I’m back.”

Yet Christian Chisolm (20), second year student at William and Mary, has it the hardest with his younger sibling Josh: “My brother engages me in verbal altercations for absolutely no reason and it’s actually very annoying because I don’t ever have to argue with anyone else until I come around my brother. I know he does it just to mess with me.”

Christian, like most of us, expected to come home from school with his room awaiting him exactly the way he left it. However, his brother Josh had some different ideas and decided to use his room for storage.

“So I had to spend two hours cleaning out my room so that I could sleep in there. When I come home I expect a clear room that I can sleep in, but alas, I had none.”

“The last argument we had I spent 45 minutes arguing with him about my chair that he took from my room and refused to give back. He said that the only way I’d get my chair back is if I paid for it and when I refused to pay for my own chair he said ‘ Well I guess you are shit out of luck bud’ and went back to his room, sat in my chair, and played PlayStation. What really threw me off is that he called me bud, who says that?”

We still love home!

Don’t let all this complaining fool you. If home would be that bad we would not come back. Of course semester break comes with a lot more free time because we don’t have class or homework, but a lot of us are excited to come home because it is the place that comes with the love and security we grew up with.

“I definitely miss the home cooked meals when I’m at school,” Jeff explains, “It’s something about being around those that are there for you in the best and worst times that is comforting. It’s mainly knowing that I am going back to my roots where everything started, the place that basically got me to where I am today.”

“My mom will do my laundry, which I love, and sometimes she’ll even clean my room if I’m not there,” explains Aaren. It’s as if we regress when we return to our homes, to a younger version of ourselves that still is taken care of by mom and dad.

Brianna can also relate: “My mom feeds me when I ask her to, and I definitely miss that when I’m at school where I have to either make or get my own food. Also she takes me to the mall sometimes and spoils me.”

It is actually quite nice to come back knowing that mom will do the laundry and cook your favorite dish because you’ve been away for a while. Overall, home is comforting, and when it is time to go back to school at the begging of the new semester our batteries will be recharged, our stomachs will be prepared to go back to that cafeteria food, and we can once again rant about the things we miss so much about home.