Campus Blog: Who Says You Can't Go Home?
Family Photo
Linde's mom snapped this photo of her brother, Zach, Eudora and her father before Eudora left for college.
Class, work, meetings, bed. Repeat.
My name is Eudora Linde and I am a college senior. I’m trying to pack as much as I can into my senior year before entering the “real world” while still maintaining my grades, being a positive leader with club involvement, holding a job as a waitress and keeping some sort of social life in my final weeks at Shippensburg University.
Living away from home at school has taught me a few things. I can cook something that resembles a meal, do my work when I need to, maintain a busy schedule and negotiate with the washer/dryer.
All of those things have contributed to the independence in my life that I have grown to love. I don’t really answer to anyone -- I check in with my roommates every so often if I don’t see them at home, but I don’t live by curfews or someone telling me that this really needs to get done.
I generally do not mind forgoing this newly discovered independence, however, for a two-hour trek down the Pennsylvania Turnpike, back home to a weekend in West Chester.
Home means I have a curfew and that I have to answer to someone other than my roommates. It also, however, means that I get to sleep in my familiar bed, take my family’s dog for a walk, eat something that is very different from my collegiate definition of a “meal,” and, on occasion, get someone else to do my laundry.
Whenever I need somewhere to go and/or to be with someone who has known me for what seems like forever, I can go home.
Friday night I pulled into West Chester with about five text messages and two calls from my parents wanting to know where I was (two hours was apparently a long time to not hear from me). I met them for dinner in town and then walked around for a little bit -- wandering into some of West Chester’s boutiques.
It was, however, more than a night of just walking aimlessly around a town that I have known for over two decades. I was able to be in contact with someone who does not let me get away with anything -- people who know enough to tell me to “knock it off” -- to me that’s inherently invaluable.
Being home with my parents reinforced the idea that no matter where my career might lead me, no matter what country I might end up in or no matter what mishap-that-you-honestly-can’t-make-up moment happen, I can always come back home.
So hopefully, a year or two from now, when I’m not living at home anymore, I’ll remember this – especially if I’m having a particularly horrific day. I might not necessarily be able to get back to West Chester as quickly as I can now, but, for me, it would be good enough to know that home is still there -- that I can reach out and touch it whenever I need to.
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Posted Thursday, Oct 15, 2009 - 5:56 AM EST
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