Home

Being home last weekend was really nice.  I loved eating my mom's cooking, seeing a lot of my old friends and family, and sleeping in my own bed.  The strange thing is that one can be away from "home" for a good amount of time and still call it home.  Things are comfortable in that place and people are just like one remembers them.  I wondered if when I went home for fall break, even though it had only been a couple months, people would think that I had changed.  Or worse, would I think that my friends or family had changed?  The truth is, it was almost easier to fit right back in because I had taken a step out.  Leaving a place that was so engraved in me made me realize who I truly was by myself.  At home, the people around me shaped my actions and the vast majority of people that I knew in my town, I had known my entire life.  Here, I realize what type of a person I am because my actions are based on just my own individual choices.  No one is here to judge my plans or scrutinize my actions, and I'm very thankful for that.  Although the first few minutes with my friends back home might have been slightly awkward, (making small talk, asking impersonal questions), we quickly recognized our prior friendship and the bonds that we have with one another.  I realized that it isn't so hard to fit in even after being gone for a month or two.  I'm glad that my family and friends don't make me feel like an outsider even if they no longer know the details of my life.