I thought that the hardest transition of the past year would be my transition into college. WRONG. It turns out it is a lot harder to re-enter the world of parents than it is to learn how to live 720 miles away from them.
The best part about college is that the rules that governed your life at home are just highly recommended as opposed to set in stone. You have full control over how you live your daily life (within the boundaries of the law and your parents’ budget of course). You essentially get to live your best life all day, every day, and no one tells you that you are doing it “wrong”. However, when you come back home, all of a sudden you get this overwhelming feeling of being under a microscope. There were no issues convincing Mama and Papa Neill to loosen the reins when they dropped me off in August, but let me tell you, they felt a whole lot shorter in May than I remembered.
It turns out some of my college habits aren’t exactly appreciated at home: coffee only for breakfast, t-shirts bigger than Texas paired with no makeup and a braid, feeling the need to stay up to midnight every single night, need I go on? I never thought I would feel culture shock in my own home, but here we are. I get it, I am their first to go off and grow up. There is a learning curve for everyone: they are learning what its like to parent a girl who has gotten used to the taste of freedom and I am learning how far I can push them without getting cut off.
*when you parents judge you for acting like a normal college student*
Going to college so far away made me appreciate the relationship I have with my parents 1000x more than I did in high school. I realized that they trusted me a lot more than they let on sometimes. This allowed me to really embrace the whole “adulting” thing. I knew I could make a couple mistakes along the way because they weren’t right down the road to see them. I got to grow a little and I think they did too.
Trust me, my first summer home from the freedom of college is not as bad as I am making it sound and there is no place else I rather be than with my BFFs Rob and Jacquely.