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WEIRENS | A Burglar Taught Me Where Home Really Is
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A terrifying home invasion showed me a what’s important at Cornell.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/home/)
A terrifying home invasion showed me a what’s important at Cornell.
I have often used my articles as another coping mechanism because I wanted someone out there to resonate with my feelings and to help me be heard on my struggles. In hindsight, I realized that I never really allowed myself to settle into college. It may sound obvious and strange but I never realized the importance of giving yourself grace and time to settle in.
I personally advocate for the back-home-break; I find that mid-semester trips or vacations are not particularly restful. Here’s my guide for the best possible break at home — split into four days each with a different ethos.
As I made the decision to start a new chapter of my life abroad at Cornell, the idea of leaving home terrified me. It was impossible for me to imagine that life had a meaning anywhere else. Beirut’s serenity was constantly feeding my spirit with peace, satisfaction and joy.
When we live with people, it’s easy to take their presence for granted. Bonding and communication are effortless. We update each other on our lives while toasting bagels for breakfast and recap the day during evening dish duty. The people we live with know about the good book we’re reading and the tooth that’s been bothering us for the past couple days. They tag along to the movie we’re seeing and show up to our hockey game because we mentioned it last week. Housemates are intimately involved in each other’s lives by association, with minimal effort from either side.
For the first two months of summer, I didn’t even entertain the idea of staying home. Even as the nationwide case count skyrocketed, my friends and I discussed what in-person lectures might entail and made plans to meet up once classes started. The little town of Ithaca lodged in my mind as a refuge, where I would finally be free from the horrors of reality. Then August came, and the blows began to rain down. Cornell announced that it didn’t have the means to quarantine all the students from states on the New York Travel Advisory list.
The characters in the show are lighthearted, goofy and relatable, and their experiences represent a number of challenges many Cornell students face. I can see many of my own peers in the characters.
After weeks of exams, papers and responsibilities, fall break offers a welcome respite for students to destress and relax. Many Cornell students decide to go home or get away from campus, though some students simply live too far away or choose not to step off campus for a quick vacation.
While students from Westchester have 679 peers from their county at Cornell, some students have fewer than 100 from their whole state.
Home for Fall Break. For Thanksgiving. For the deliciously long Winter Break. Back to familiar haunts, faces and foods. The mildly annoying barrage of “back at it” Snapchats and Instagram posts.