Settling In

Settling In

After almost two months since leaving for school, fall break finally gave me the opportunity to travel back to my hometown. This break always comes at a genius time, when I physically can’t pull any more all-nighters, I crave my mom’s home-cooking all day long and most of all I miss my family and friends. All semester long I have been using the same phrase to complain when I am homesick and tired: “I just want to sleep in my own bed.” What I found however, was that after a day of traveling and excitement back home, I was finally back in my own bed and couldn’t sleep. As a matter of fact, although I greatly enjoyed my time at home, I really wasn’t able to get a good night sleep at all.

Upon arriving back at Loyola, I laid down in my bed in Fordham Hall and the next thing I knew it was nine hours later, just in time for my first class of the day. I had slept the best that I had the entire fall break.

I tend to read into small signs like this. I have heard it usually takes six months for someone to move-in to a new space and become fully acclimated. For me, this was a sign that the freshness of the beginning of the year is officially over and I have finally settled in here. Even something as little as feeling comfortable and safe in my bed is a comfort measure that reminds me of home and helps me deal with homesickness. It is in finding these little things that help make Loyola home. I needed this fall break trip to reaffirm my roots at home and at the same time acknowledge my life as a college student.

Now confident and reenergized, I feel ready to conquer the school week as the mid-academic semester approaches.

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