Winter break might be the best thing to happen to Penn Staters all year. There’s no schoolwork, no alarm clocks, and no walking a mile to class in below-freezing temperatures. At some point while you’re home, you realize that life at home is a little bit different than life at Penn State. Here are some other realizations that we’ve come to over break.
The value of a home-cooked meal
You think you’re doing just fine eating ramen and waffles every day until you have your first home-cooked meal over break and realize what you’ve been missing. The best part about eating at home is that you’re not usually the one who’s doing the cooking.
“My mom’s cooking is so much better than mine,” says junior Shealyn Farley. “I just don’t have time to cook all the time while I’m at school.” Chipotle and Wings Over don’t stand a chance against mom’s cooking.
Having your own room is amazing
Roommates are great, they really are. They bring you ice cream when your boyfriend breaks up with you and they tell you that you look pretty when you obviously don’t. However, they also have friends over until four in the morning on a Tuesday and turn all the lights on at 6 a.m. when you don’t have to wake up until 8 a.m. Going home and being able to get 12 hours of interrupted sleep is truly a blessing.
Your family is obsessed with your nonexistent boyfriend/girlfriend
Seriously, what’s up with this? Every time you go home, you can rest assured that someone in your family will ask if you’re seeing anyone, and if you’re not, they’ll ask why. It’s generally helpful to have a list of responses in mind, such as “I really don’t have the time” or “ I’m just trying to focus on my grades.” Or you could take the honest route and tell them that you’d rather spend your time drinking wine and watching Netflix.
Some things just aren’t acceptable at home
There are some things that just aren’t OK to do when you’re not at school, like dropping the F-bomb or drinking at 2 a.m. on a Wednesday. This realization usually comes around the time that your mom yells at you for swearing in front of your grandma or your dad tells you that you need to start getting up earlier than one in the afternoon.
While there are good things and bad things about being home for break, one thing is certain: none of us can wait to get back to Happy Valley come January.
