When I always thought about going to college, I always thought about how great it would be and how much I would love it. At the beginning of college, I thought I had been wrong the whole time. I did not realize how much I was going to miss home and my family or how scary it was to be on my own in a very unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. Thankfully, I did not have the resources to go home often, or else I think I would have. Being away from home for six weeks had its ups and downs, but I think not being home and doing everything I can to make college my home made me fall in love with my college and made me realize it is not a good idea to go home every weekend.

Even though being away from home in a new environment may be hard at first, it is important to not resort to going home because it will make it more difficult. People think that going home will cure their homesickness. It may be nice at first to see your family and friends in a town or city that is familiar, but visiting home is only a short-term solution. By traveling home often, you risk becoming someone who feels like they do not belong at home or at school. It is best to embrace college life and try your best to make it your new home, or at least your second home.

If you are going home every weekend or every other weekend, it becomes difficult to make friends because the weekends are when you get closer to your friends and do things together. Friends are a very important part of college. Since college is going to be your home for the next four years, you need friends, not just so you have people to have fun with but also so you have a support system around you. Having friends at college is what starts to make it feel more like home. The first semester of college is when people establish their friend groups, and if you miss out on that period of time, it is going to be even harder to make friends later.

One of the implications of going home too often is that you are not going to learn how to be fully independent. Being on your own away from your parents, you learn skills that you cannot learn at home. It is a big step toward adulthood. Being independent is an important skill you learn in college that you will need in your adult life. One day you are going to live away from your childhood home, and it may not be feasible to visit home every weekend, so you should learn this skill now.

Driving home often is a waste of your time and money, especially if you live far away. Time and money become a lot more valuable once you enter college, and they should be used wisely. Even if you live far away, all of that driving still costs money because of the gas. Driving home, unpacking, catching up with family and friends, doing laundry and packing all take a lot of time. That time should be dedicated to more important things like homework, which is realistically hard to get done at home. College goes by fast, so your time should be spent making the most of your experience and focusing on your degree.

At college, everything happens on the weekends. It is the time where you connect with other people outside the classroom. Events are being held on and off campus, and activities are being held by clubs and organizations. That is when people hang out and go to parties. It is easier to get more involved during the weekends.

Eventually, college will start to feel like home, and you will actually like it. College is what you make of it, and anybody who is going home all the time is not going to like their college because then it just becomes about school work and the stress that comes with it. The people who get involved and stay on campus more are a lot happier and like college more than those who go home often. College is a very unique time that goes fast, and you are paying a lot of money for it, so it is best to make sure that you do everything you can to make it worth it. To make sure that you have the best time, you have to be willing to put in the effort.

Lauren Wilner is a freshman majoring in philosophy, politics and law.