Ahh it feels so nice to be home, but I can’t wait until I go back home.
Welcome to the inner thoughts of a girl home on break who fell in love with her college after one semester.
I was recently asked if I knew where home was. Obviously, home is Texas; it always has been and it always will be. When they say you can take the girl out of Texas, but you can’t take the Texas out of the girl, they aren’t joking. But after one semester of college, part of me (including my smart phone) would tell you that Oxford is home.
It wasn’t until I came home for Christmas break that I realized I had found a second place to call home. After a couple weeks at home, I got this strange, almost guilty feeling: I was missing Mississippi liked I missed Texas and I was missing my friends like I missed my family. I mean I can’t be wishing I wasn’t at home, right? There’s no way I love college that much, right?
Then it occurred to me that this feeling of missing where I went to school as much as I missed my home was a good thing. I was lucky enough to find a university that was my perfect match on my first try, not everyone can say that. The academics, the social life, the people, the vibe of the Southern college town; it is like a little slice of heaven in northern Mississippi. To quote John Green: “I fell in love (with Ole Miss and Ox) the way you fall asleep: slowly and then all at once.” I slipped into the Velvet Ditch and I never want to leave.
So the question still stands: where is home? Home is Austin AND Oxford. Home is that place where I know everything is going to be okay. Home is where I feel like I can be my truest self. Home is where I am surrounded by people who love me and support me in becoming the best version of myself. I found that at Ole Miss, it just took leaving for six weeks for me to realize how lucky I was.
To the high school seniors reading this: I hope you find your home away from home. Don’t settle for just any school. Find a school that when you step on campus, you get this feeling deep in your gut that this is it, this is home. It might be the school that you have always dreamed of, the one that makes you cry when you open your acceptance letter, or it might be that out of state school that you can’t get out of your head. Good luck on making your final decisions, may the odds be ever in your favor.
P.S. If anyone is on the fence about Ole Miss, come visit me in Ox, mi dorm es su dorm 🙂