When you’re a college student living in the dorms, you’ll realize 'home' is an interesting concept.

The question is: Is home the town you grew up in, or is it where you spend the majority of your life now?

Within the first few weeks of college, I began referring to my dorm as ‘home.’ For instance when my friends would ask what I was doing after a class or work; I would say “Oh, I’m going home to study after work.”

Referring to your dorm as home feels a little awkward at first because it’s nowhere near what the home you grew up in is or was like. It’s a dramatic shift from your family home to a shared, small space with 40-plus people living on the same floor together. While in school, it is your home base, because that’s where you spend the majority of your time; you spend it with your friends studying, talking or eating ice cream, in my case, together. This kind of home doesn’t replace your family, but it substitutes for immediate support during your college years, when you’re making big transitions from being a young adult to being an adult that takes on full responsibility for themself.

Coming 'home' to Sequim, during breaks is a little surreal in the ways that I’ve realized that everything I thought would stay the same isn’t, and everyone grows up and leaves, like me.

For me, a home is no longer a stagnant physical thing anymore, it’s not the house that I grew up in during my time in Sequim, and it’s not my Ashton hall dorm, because after next year, I’ll move out into a shared house. How I see home nowadays, is its where those who you love, who you struggle with, make breakthroughs with, and cause you to develop you into a better version of yourself. It’s a state of mind that is carried over into whatever stage of life you’re in. You find those special people in your life at the time and make a home out of them.

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Hello, I’m Emma Eekhoff. I’m an 18-year-old that would rather be networking for business than at a party with my friends. I’m not afraid to share my stance on something, whether it is an art form like music or recent events in the world. I’ve been writing in a journalist setting for only a few years, through my high school’s online newspaper, The Growl Online or for a music blog. I love to connect and network with new people in the worlds of business and music, travel to new places and eat new interesting foods. 

Follow & connect with me on Social Media: Instagram / Twitter / eekhoffemma@gmail.com

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