Come the end of the year, we just want to be done with it all and have a chance to get new, less stressful courses. And finals, as many of us know, can be horridly stressful. Finals, combined with holiday blues, make students squirm to get free of campus and classes to head home for the holidays. The week of finals, we pressure our professors to host tests or project presentations early in the week just so we can pack our bags and get out of Dodge.

We all just want to get out. But what happens when we finally do?

We miss school.

Millikin students are a closely-knit bunch, and as many of you have found out this past winter break, it’s not always easy to leave the place you learned to call home and the friends you now call family.

Besides, home just isn’t the same anymore.

Going away to school opens up so many opportunities, but closes so many doors that we walked through long ago. Friends from home have also left and gone away, made new friends, travelled a different path. Some may have stayed, but then you’re the ones that have changed.

College changes everyone. Time changes everyone. People may not change entirely, but some aspects will. I know I have changed dramatically, and I still hope that it’s for the better. And it’s the people we’re around here, at college, at Millikin, that help us become the people we are today. The people we’re meant to be.

Sure, sometimes it’s nice to have a break. Be free from classes. Be with our families. Get some fresh air. But in the end, we miss those people we’re close to. We miss our dorm rooms, fraternities and sororities, houses, and apartments.

We miss Millikin. We miss home.