Making the Most of It

Hello faithful readers!

I'm sure that you all have been anxiously checking my blog and have been wondering what I have been up to this month. Well, let me tell you: Dateline. (Not kidding either. I have watched a lot of Dateline: Real Life Mysteries. Probably a little too much, not going to lie. But that's besides the point.) Anyway, I hope that all of you are doing well and had a good month as well and are looking forward to the weekend. I am home for the weekend (yay!) for some much needed rest and family time (granted no one is home right now so my "family time" is nonexistent).

I always look forward to going home for breaks and it is always nice to leave campus for a little bit and go back to my comfort zone for a while. Leaving school and my friends is a challenge, but for a whole heck of reasons. I mean, you all know that I hate goodbyes and I struggle with them for so many reasons. Goodbyes are weird...Last year I always looked forward to going home and couldn't wait to leave campus (not because I didn't like school, but because I missed my family). But this year it's very different. I want to go home and see my family, but I miss my friends. I have a life back home, but a life at school, too. I feel torn.

A part of my heart is left at school--even if it's only for a short period of time. But I miss my friends. I spend so much of my time with these people that it's weird to be without them (like, I eat all three meals with them, do our homework together, work out together, basically everything). I have realized how short my time at college is (which is kind of funny because 4 years seems like a long time, but it's really not) and I want to make the most of it. I have been blessed with absolutely incredible friends who make me laugh until I cry, pick me up when I fall, offer kind words when I need it most, and participate in my crazy ideas. I want to make sure that I make the most of it and spend as much time as I can with them before we all go our separate ways after graduation.

Then, however, I come home and realize how much I miss it. I miss sleeping in my own bed, being able to hug my family whenever I want, visiting my grandparents and aunt fairly often (but never often enough), driving! Things that I have taken for granted for so many years. It's more than the simple things I miss, I also miss out on a lot when I am at school, too. I miss my sister's band concerts or my brother's speech tournaments or family outings.

I'm trying to make the most of my time both at home and at school and not think too much about it. I know that I will always leave a part of my heart wherever I go (I have a big heart, so that's bound to happen). That has been happening for years, though, and I also leave a little bit of my heart behind (Chicago, Milwaukee, New Orleans, and Detroit). It's just different when I go back and forth between home and school. I remind myself to enjoy the present and focus on what is going on right then; of course, this is easier said than done.

It's a work in progress, to say the least. I'm making an effort not to take for granted my time with either my family or my friends. It's a balancing act, but it's okay. I just have to make the most of it.

Love,

Katie