The car’s all packed up, you’re all cried out, and no matter how many hugs you’ve had, you’ll always need one more. Memories are flashing through your mind; you’d give anything for one more week,one more day.
Yes, saying goodbye to your parents is hard in the beginning, but the harder goodbye is the one you can’t predict, the one no one warns you about; the harder goodbye is in May when you’re waving goodbye to the people that made college “home” this past year.
When you first get to college, you’re a chicken with your head cut off. Yes, it gets easier as you ease your way into Welcome Week and things start to become more familiar. But for the first few days, everyone is vulnerable. No one knows what they’re doing.
No one has friends yet, no one has joined anything and everyone is starting at square one. Then you meet your squad. The people you never saw coming that quickly go from friends to “family.”
These are the people you eat your meals with, walk to class with and join a club with. As time goes by, you find yourself laying on the floor of your dorm with these people or going to Steak ‘n Shake with them at 3 a.m. simply because this is college and you can. This could be your roommate, your classmate, or someone you met at a party.
College, especially freshman year, is one big sleepover that seems to go on forever. You find your people quickly, because unlike high school, these hangouts don’t seem to end. There are no parents making you go home,no curfew; it is total freedom.
But when they happen, the goodbyes are brutal because 24/7 becomes 0/7 for three painful months until another Welcome Week brings you back together again.
This story is part of the Scout 2018 summer special issue. Read the full summer issue.
