College is great, don’t get me wrong, you have freedom to do as you please but you take for granted the little things from home. As a senior in college there are definitely a bunch of things that I miss about being home and you really learn to appreciate all the things your parents did for you!
5. Your Pets
Your dog is just something you can’t take with you to school. Sometimes you might miss your pet more than some family members (shhh.) It’s like leaving your best friend behind and you’re not able to talk to them at all! Your mom lets you “facetime” the dog, but come on, that dog has no idea what’s going on.
4. LAUNDRY
I absolutely despise doing laundry. I’ll put it off for as long as humanly possible and there are clothes all over my floor. Being home your parents will just throw it in for you and you have no worries about it. (side note: laundry detergent isn’t free and we have much more important things to buy!)
3. Home Cooked Meals
Being someone who, frankly, sucks at cooking, one of the biggest things you miss is mom’s cooking and dad’s barbecuing. After a while you just get tired of ramen noodles and Taco Bell (crazy concept right?) and you just want a substantial meal. Not to mention, mom isn’t going to make you pay her for the meal, thanks mom!
2. Your High School Friends
Chances are, if you don’t go to school with a bunch of your high school friends you’re going to drift apart. Everyone gets busy with either school or starting their careers and everyone seems to go different ways. You reminisce about fun and crazy times you had with the people you grew up with!
Your Family
No matter how old you are you always miss your mom and dad when you leave home! It doesn’t get easier leaving and you’re always counting the days til the next time you get to see them. They’re your main supporters and have helped you throughout your whole life so it’s scary when you get out into the world by yourself! You might not admit it, but you even miss your annoying siblings! Leaving home really makes you appreciate the time spent with your family, so to my family: thank you for everything!
Post by Shane Monsen, Senior at the University of Montana.
If your parents are anything like mine, they raised you with lots of TLC, advice, and knowledge, and a little tough love as well. Most college kids have their parents to thank for where they are today, so why not take the time to actually thank them, even for the simple things.
Dear Mom and Dad,
Thank you for…
1. Listening. If your group projects are anything like mine, you need someone to vent to. When I say vent, I really mean yell and scream to get everything that you’ve been bottling up out so you don’t freak out on that lazy person you’ve been forced to work with for 15 weeks straight. There have been more than a few occasions that my parents have listened to me vent for 30 min. or more, even when I know they don’t care. You guys are troopers!
2. Making me humble. Parents teach us the values and morals that mold us into who we are. They hope that they have given us enough knowledge in order to make us good people and to survive out their in the “real world.” I truly believe that being humble got me my job (thanks mom), and my hard work ethic helped me to succeed in my job (thanks dad).
3. The letters and CARE PACKAGES!! There is really nothing better as a broke college student than going to get your mail and seeing a big box with your name on it. Also, even though the older generation might not believe this with all of our gadgets these days, most college students still love getting letters, or at least I do. I love getting letters from family and friends, knowing that they sat down and took time out of their busy schedules is very special to me. Care packages and letters give college kids something to look forward to, so keep ’em coming please and thank you!!
Me when I get mail that isn’t junk….
4. Being patient with me. Let’s be honest, all kids suck. Sure, yeah, they are great and all. They love you and they are humble ;). But kids can be shitheads, and parents have to put up with them. I applaud my parents for putting up with everything I put them through; I can’t imagine how much patience they had to have with my siblings and myself.
Speaking of siblings….
5. Siblings. I guess I should probably thank you for blessing me with two of the most frustrating, loving, idiotic, and comical siblings ever. We fought like all siblings do, but I wouldn’t trade my brother and sister for anything. Siblings teach us many important things in life like how to win arguments and how to get what you want in return to keep your mouth shut and not tell mom and dad.
6. Teaching me that it’s good to make mistakes. Growing up I always got down on myself for making mistakes. My parents taught me, as I’m sure yours have taught you, that as long as you learned something from the mistake, it isn’t a bad thing. As simple as this lesson is, I believe it is important in life to not get down on yourself and be positive. Thank you for making me learn from my mistakes guys.
7. Giving me my love of pizza. I truly believe that my family loves pizza more than any other family, and I’m sure my cousins will back me up on this one. College students love pizza, and I just think that we should all thank our parents for introducing us to this heavenly food.
8. Being my best friends. A best friend is someone who listens without judgement, who’s there for you always, and who pushes you to be your best. Best friends get excited to see each other when they’ve been hundreds of miles away from each other for months. Best friends make you laugh and cry, and they order you pizza when you’re having a really bad day, or a really good day, or just an okay day, they just eat pizza together okay? My parents and I eat pizza together, and all that other stuff too.
9. Worrying about me. I know I missed a lot of curfews and made you wait up for me. I always told you I would be fine and that you didn’t need to stay up and wait for me. I hate that you worry about me so much, but sometimes it feels nice to be worried about. Knowing that there are people out there that are worried about you, makes you feel special.
My parents when I tell them I was at a friend’s house watching movies…
10. Making it so hard to leave. To quote my dear old friend Winnie the Pooh, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” Thank you for being so great at parenting. I like to think you did at least an okay job 🙂
If you have parents who raised you right, and loved you more than anything, don’t forget to thank them!
This blog post is dedicated to not only my parents, who gave me life, but also to the many other sets of parents that have figuratively “adopted” me over the years. I will never ever be able to thank you all enough for everything you’ve done for me. I love you all to the moon and back <3
Written By: Megan Johnson is a Senior at the University of Montana, graduating in December of 2015.
