We all have the same feeling.

We all think we’re different.  We all think that we’re the main character in our own story.  We all have different experiences and feelings and emotions.

I promise you, you’re the same as everybody else.

It’s not meant to be a bad thing.  Take solace in the fact that the way you feel sometimes doesn’t make you different.  It truly does make you a human being.

The feeling that I am referring to now is that Thanksgiving feeling.

Everybody remembers their first moments home from college.  You’re nervously anticipating returning back to the place where you spent the majority of your life.  You’re going to see your parents, sure.  But you’re also going to see every one else.  Mainly, you’re going to see your friends from high school for the first time in months.  And, if you’re not a freshman in college, for the first time in a year or two.

And isn’t it nice?  Some people that you spent four years together studying, playing sports, or just hanging out.  You can see them and catch up and talk about the “good old days.” Hell, maybe you’ll even see a girl or two that you liked back in high school.

You feel like the main character, don’t you?  I promise you, you’re not.

Everybody has those same feelings when they come home from college.  That nervous anticipation is just you wanting to feel like that main character.  You want everybody to look at you and think, “Wow, that person has it all together.”  You want people to think that everything is great and you’re doing so well away from the place you used to call home.

In reality, everyone probably is doing great.  At the same time, they’re not doing so great.  That’s what you call “life.”

In reality, everybody has gone through the same feelings at college that you have.  Everyone has made new friends, and had some new experiences.  Everyone has felt the purest form of ecstasy with the highest of highs, and everyone has felt like they’re at the bottom with the absolute lowest of lows.  That doesn’t make you special.

IT MAKES YOU HUMAN!

Honestly, it isn’t a bad thing at all.  I mean it.  We’re all the same types of people.  We all have our individual quirks and characteristics that make us, us.  We’re all snowflakes, or at least that’s what your first grade teacher told you.

At least at Thanksgiving, we’re all different.

I, myself, have experienced five Thanksgivings home from college.  One more than most college students have experienced.

Even though you spent half a year at college being your own person and creating your own memories, you revert back to your old high school self for at least one night.  You are fighting the urge to be liked.  You are insecure.  You are trying to impress people you found trivial in high school.  You still find them trivial now.  Why are you fighting so hard for them to like you?  To be impressed by you?  To be concerned with your well-being at all?

There is no answer.

The truth is, you come home and you revert back to a person that you’re comfortable with.  You go back to the type of person that you spent a tremendous amount of time being like.  Even if that isn’t truly you.  Even if you tried so incredibly hard to get away from.

Because now, there’s a few people who you are seeing that you’re comfortable with.  That you feel at home with.  And now, you’re going back to home base.  You’re going back to what you used to be.

Don’t.

You don’t have to do it.  You can take a step back and think about college you.  Adult you.  The version of yourself that you are comfortable with.  The person who you actually find some peace with.

It’s easy to go back to the person you were in high school or back in your hometown.  The less advanced you.  I’m not saying that college changes you completely.  The people who come back from high school who act like they’re completely different people at are the worst.  It’s only a few months, you couldn’t have changed that much.

But still, you are different.  And that’s okay.  Own the different person that you are.

Don’t revert back to the high school you.  The high school version of you, and everybody else, is a joke.  Enjoy the you are now.  Enjoy seeing some people that you actually missed.  Then, get in your car and drive back to school.

As fast as you can.