Messy Dorm

The Long Drive Home

Today I find myself packing again. Well, to be honest, this isn’t really packing-it’s shoving about three weeks of dirty laundry into a suitcase and having my roommate sit on it so I can get it to close.

This time is different, not the same sentimental trip down memory lane as when I packed before college. This is the “night before my first trip home frantic pack.” My ride leaves for home in an hour, and procrastination is eating me alive. College didn’t teach me to procrastinate since I was experienced in that art well before I stepped onto campus.

Now that I am packed and in the slower-than-molasses elevator, I have a minute to examine my emotions about my first trip home. I didn’t think I would be, but I’m excited. My old friend, Laura, picks me up, groggy, in front of my dorm building for our six A.M. drive. My expectations are that I am going home to what I left behind. These things are my parents, home-cooked meals, friends who I have shared distinctive bonds and my brother, who I have been dying to see. I am happy at college, but a trip home to my family and friends sounds like just the thing I need to prepare me for the midterms workload.

I decide to catch up on the missed hours of sleep in the car. We hit traffic from an accident up the road while I slept so I arrive later at home than expected. Pulling in my driveway I get out of the car to find my mom frantic, thinking I had been abducted since I made no update phone calls while sleeping. I look at her puzzled. In a mother’s eyes I suppose there is no logical explanation for being late, such as a traffic jam. I assure her I do not need to be accompanied home on the way back to campus with Laura.

A few hours later, Laura had gone home and my Mom and I drive over to see my Dad in Boonsboro, MD. Remarkably my Dad seems calmer than my Mom had been in greeting me. I ask to see my room, expecting to find my shrine, my old cleats, prom pictures, candid photos of friends, and...