Feb. 18, 2015

By Alyssa Kirchen

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”25″ size_format=”px”] I want to have a social life in college, but I love going home on the weekends. Is it possible to have both? [/typography]

A: It’s hard being away from home when you’re not sleeping in a comfy bed or getting those delicious home-cooked meals; so you find yourself going home every weekend.

It’s nice to be in the comfort of your own home because it makes you feel relaxed and happy. At the same time, going home every weekend can cause a strain on your social life. Having a social life is hard enough with the amount of study going on, but going home on the weekends can make it vanish completely.

During the week, there isn’t a lot of time to hang out with friends without a textbook in front of you, so weekends are perfect to spend some quality time with them. There are a lot more opportunities to do things like go to a movie, head to the bowling lanes, or anything other than school. If you go home every weekend, you miss out on a lot of those opportunities.

For a while, I found myself going home a lot on the weekends. I really liked seeing my family and friends from back home, but I started to notice I was missing out on a lot with my friends at school. For a while, they just assumed I would being going home almost every weekend and stopped inviting me to things. After I realized this, I knew that I needed to make a change.

Depending how far away you live from home, there are a couple of options in order for you to have both a social life and go home. If you live pretty close, one option is to split the weekend up. Most college students start their weekend on Thursday night, so stay in town Thursday and Friday and go home on Saturday and Sunday. This way, you have some time in one weekend to enjoy being at school with your friends – doing something other than homework – but you can also have a decent amount to time to spend at home.

If you live far away and this option isn’t very convenient, try switching it up. Go home every other weekend. One weekend you go home for the entire weekend and the next you stay and hang out with your school friends. This way you won’t be completely alienated because your friends will have a schedule of when they expect to see you and when they expect you to be gone. This makes it exciting for you and your friends because then you are more likely to make plans and go out rather than sitting in your Residence Hall or apartment.

There are many different ways to alternate weekends to make it easier for you to have a social life and to enjoy being at home. If you make the effort you won’t be stuck with one or the other, but you will be able to have both. It’s important in college to keep your friends close to you as well as enjoy spending time with your family. By splitting time between both, you will be a happier person.