Yeah, I Did That

Coming home after a year in college is not so much a strange feeling as it is a strange event. Here you are, standing in your driveway after 9 months of complete and ultimate freedom. Minus the occasional phone call to update your status ("I'm still alive".... "I need more money"... etc etc) your life has been completely separate from the world you are about to re-enter. Parents are thrilled, siblings hide their excitement, and pets are in the same spot you left them. Only everything is different.
It's interesting to think that a year has passed. High school seniors are getting ready to graduate. My little brother is driving. My room is coated with a layer of dust.
And what's this feeling? Is it saddness? Is it emptiness or longing? Do I wish I'd done things differently? Gone to a closer school, kept up with friends, come home more often? And honestly, I don't know. The experiences I've had this year, the people I've met, the places I've gone, the things I've seen, the things I've learned- I needed them. As much as things have changed, as weird it is to be back in this town, I needed to leave. I needed to grow.
Now I can come back and appreciate my high school teachers, and let my brother drive me to see old friends. I can even enjoy the dust in my room. I can stand in my driveway and think about these things and say, "Yeah, I did that."