<p>Not sure if this is the right subforum for this, but I'm new here so please excuse me.</p>
<p>So I'm a freshman right now, and this Christmas I'm going back home for the first time. About three weeks ago, this senior told me that when she went home for Christmas as a freshman, she hated it. Everything had changed, and she found that she couldn't relate to any of her old friends anymore. Needless to say, it kind of unsettled me. As someone who's really looking forward to going home again, is this a typical experience among college students? Is it typical for freshmen to feel that kind of isolation during their first time back home, or is the person I talked to an exception to the rule? Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I think it depends on the person. Some folks’ friends go through a lot of changes in that first semester, some don’t. I personally love hanging out with my friends I was really close with in high school. We still have fun and we get to do things we couldn’t do as high schoolers.</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s sort of what I figured too. It’s just the way she recounted her experience made it seem like a horror story lol. I mean, I’m not going back home expecting everything to be 100% the same as it was when I left, but I’m not expecting anything even remotely major either.</p>
<p>I think you will definitely feel things have changed at home, just as you are different. When you left, your parents had to adjust to not having you there. In our house, for example, dd’s sister used to listen most of the time at dinner. with her sister gone, she is much more talkative. That was a big adjustment for sister when she returned, as she wasn’t used to sharing the talk equally. Not bad…just different. I think the most common thing you will see is a big gap between the friends who stayed home, and the friends who lived away from home that first semester. You have had a lot of new experiences that they have not, and that may cause distance or jealousy. The other common issue is that your parents must adjust to you being more independent than when you left, while you have to adjust to once again having people asking where you are going, etc. Just be patient and try to be respectful…it will work out!</p>
<p>Good point. Most of my friends indeed are going to school back home, but I keep in touch with a good amount of them through Facebook and Twitter and they don’t seem to be jealous. I imagine that my parents have had to make adjustments with me not being there, but I make it a point to keep in contact with them on a somewhat regular basis. I’ve basically taken a few precautions to make sure I’m not shellshocked when I go back home, but there’s always that little part of me that’s wondering about what could happen, haha.</p>