Coming Home for Summer/Breaks: There Are Rules Again?

There comes a time for a college student to move back home for a while, whether it be for a holiday break or for the whole entire summer. I remember in High School, how much we lived for those breaks, how the weeks in waiting for those glimpses of freedom were the most dreadful ever. Anything was better than stepping foot into that prison of a place called school.

But now, it's more than halfway through the summer, and I can't wait for it to end.

That's right, I said I can't wait for it to end. 

One of my best friends on campus,
Diana, with me after pedal boating!

College, the magical land where pizza shows up at your dorm door after midnight and it's totally acceptable. The beautiful place where PJ's are worn all hours of the day. A place where being crazy adventurous, having fun, and eating tons of delicious cheap food is its very own religious ritual. Oh, and the best part: no rules. So why would I want to give that up?? 

Posted below are a few highlights from my first year of college!

First time on a real canoe expedition. Thank you college
friends for forcing me to do this!
(Peer pressure can be a good thing.)

Official 10th Anniversary of Mean Girls. In college, it's totally
acceptable to wear what you want when you want, and don't we
look damn classy?
Pictured: Me, Diana, Nate, and Josie :)

College is the one place that I finally felt totally free.
(Unless we're talking about my wallet, then that's another story.)

Anyways, coming back home for the first time was a lot weirder than I expected it to be. I mean, rules? No pizza place that delivers past midnight? I can't do my laundry at 1am so I can have clean underwear the next day without waking someone up from the noise? And where the hell are my beloved vending machines?

What kind of warped portal had I just been sent through?

As the oldest kid of my family, I was the first bird out of the nest, so to speak. So not only have I had to adjust to coming back and having my summer roommate become my 11 year old sister, but my parents had to readjust to their sassy kid moving back under their roof. Let me tell you, it has been an adventure. 

I feel like as a college kid, coming back home can sometimes make things a lot more frustrating. After living on our own for a whole year, one would think we have enough life experience to know how to be self-sustaining, right? Well, back to the subject of my last post, some people, especially family members, refuse to accept the fact that we're real, live, actual adults. And that, my friends, is why some still decide that we can't function without their rules constantly hovering above our heads. 

So what do we do about this dilemma? Honestly, and as usual, I don't have an exact formula. I mean, technically, if we're the perfect little angels of children our parents always dreamed of, we could always just clean up that four-foot high pile of laundry that's been staring at us for a month, but that's not as fun. So here are some tricks to fool your parents into believing that you've done your 'responsibilities' at the exact moment they want. (You can save the real cleaning and other such things for when you feel like taking care of it later. Or never, for that matter. I don't care.)

1. Does this look familiar?


Here's your solution: Hide in every crevice of your room. Under your bed, in an empty backpack, behind a bookcase, and my personal favorite, suitcases. (No one will ever have to know besides you and me.)

2. Oops, you forgot to unpack your backpack after the semester ended.


Here's your solution: Either burn all contents in a ritual-like rage, or simply zip up your backpack and empty it later. It's that simple.

3. Have clean dishes to put away?


Here's your solution: Make them dirty. It's a shame you didn't know the dishwasher was clean, because otherwise you wouldn't have put a spoon with peanut butter, a plate of leftover mashed potatoes, and the remnants of last week's lasagna in the dishwasher. Oops.

4. Have to fold the clean laundry your mom just did for you?


Here's your solution: Fold your laundry terribly. Maybe you just can't fold that towel into quarters neatly. Make a quiet comment to yourself (in your mother's presence) about how you wish you could fold laundry like her. And just like that, your laundry will literally fold itself.

5. Have to take out the trash?


Here's your solution: There's a few things that you could do in this scenario - hire a raccoon, preferably not a rabid one, to eat your mess, or you could build a garbage can zipline from your second floor window to the outdoors so you will never have to carry your trash out again.

6. Need bonus points to convince your parents you really are a great kid?


Here's your solution: Clean up your mess from your campout on the couch last night. Yes, even the half open bag of Doritos. Find the energy to put it back in the cupboard. If you're lucky enough, your parents will forget you moved back in with them and you can lead a long, happy life, free and in charge.

Just for entertainment, I found this on Buzzfeed. It pretty much sums up all of the things we go through when we come back home. It's smile-worthy for sure!

Hope these tips work. Good Luck!

Love Always,
Amber <3