Right now, students are anxious to finish up exams, return home and spend the holidays with family. Just a few days after this mass exodus from Oxford, whiny Facebook statuses everywhere will pop up: "Can't wait to be back at Miami!!!" some will declare or "Back to OxVegas!!!!"
This is a continued tradition I've seen every year I've been at Miami University. As I get older, Miami has become more of my home, a place tao which I happily return. Over every holiday break, I miss this university and all of the family I've made here more than I thought possible.
During my first year, every student, well, at least every girl I know, arrived armed with a box full of photographs. After mom and dad left, they quickly posted up pictures of their 20 best friends from high school. Every student also arrives with special pacts to Facebook chat, call and send care packages to their best friends. But quickly, these promises are broken. Residence hall walls are, over time, replaced with pictures of new best friends at Miami. A Thursday night phone call promised to your friend at a different college is replaced with you and your new roommate trudging through the snow to attend some fraternity party you thought was cool.
I wish I could list all of the challenging, crushing, exciting and laughable firsts I've enjoyed here, but that would take up the whole OpEd page.
All of these firsts, these new experiences, happen here at Miami with new people, some of whom will be your best friends for life. While nothing beats family, real food and being able to watch a Christmas movie around a fireplace instead of a space heater, it's no surprise that by my junior year I'm a little conflicted as to where home is.
Just look around, you'll see housemates struggling to put sparkling Christmas lights up outside of their houses together, groups of friends enjoying a faux Thanksgiving dinner, students buying another holiday decoration to cozy up their dorm room and friends catching up over a peppermint mocha latte.
It's during the holiday season that it becomes more evident that Oxford, too, has become our home.
All Miami students have two things to be grateful for this season, the home that we came from and the life that we are privileged to lead here.
But, at the same time, all of us have one thing to be especially unthankful for, the short time we are given in Oxford.
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