By Andrew Kruszka, Staff Writer
Leaving the town I grew up in, the one I spent 17-and-a-half years in, was a tough pill to swallow. Although I was excited to be furthering my education at St. Bonaventure University, I missed home all the time.
I was able to make friends, do well in classes, join clubs and have fun moments, but it was always in the back of my head that I missed my home.
I’m here to tell you that this feeling is definitely okay! You’re allowed to miss your parents, grandparents, siblings, dogs, cats, friends, and anything and everything from back home. You grew up there for a long time, and we as a society try to make it the norm to drop everything and move somewhere else where you have to do your own laundry?
I was the same way. I missed my hometown, my actual home, and the people around me while I was there immensely. No matter how hard I tried to not think about it, in the middle of having fun, I would be reminded of how much I missed home.
People in college and especially my loyal readers here at Bonaventure, please know that you are in fact, not alone. This is why after one semester at Bonaventure, I decided to leave and transfer to a new school closer to where I live.
There, I could work and go to school close to home while living with my family. Although I enjoyed this time that I was spending at home, I knew that my life needed to be somewhere else, and I just felt an emptiness inside me. It wasn’t the same emptiness that I had felt when I was living at school but a different one.
I missed the school that I was meant to be at: Bona’s. So, after one semester in the spring semester of my freshman year, I decided to transfer back to Bonaventure in the fall of my sophomore year. Here is where I felt was my place to be and where I actually wanted to further my education.
Bonaventure might not be your school and if it isn’t, that is completely fine. It is your duty to leave the university if you don’t think it is fulfilling your needs/wants as a secondary learner. For me, this is and was my school and although I live at home this semester, I know that I can call Bonaventure my home. I’ve grown to love it as a second one.
There’s something about walking around the beautiful little campus that we have here and getting the door held for you when the person holding it for you clearly would have just let it shut if you were at Canisius or Niagara (I only say that because they’re rival schools).
So, if you’re feeling down and you simply miss your home, parents, grandparents, siblings, dog, cat, friends, etc. take a drive back there if you’re in the possible difference. If not, technology allows us to call/facetime with our loved ones.
Sooner or later, the semester will be finished, you’ll be packing your suitcase to head back home to where you belong. Sooner or later, you’ll be wearing that cap and gown at graduation like our seniors will be doing here soon and wish that Thursday morning 8 a.m.’s would have lasted a little longer.
The opinion stands, you’re not alone when you miss home, I shouldn’t feel that way and you shouldn’t either!
kruszka18@bonaventure.edu
