An Even Harder Goodbye

So in t minus 2 days I will be back in my Orlando home. All summer, it seems like I've just been anxiously counting down the days till I'm reunited with "o-town". Now that the time is so near, I'm actually feeling a little nostalgic about leaving this town, my family, and my jobs. It seems that only recently I've grown closer to the people and it's made me feel sad about leaving. Honestly, when I first left my home and embarked on a new chapter of my life in my first year of college last summer, I was itching to speed out of town and start fresh. You would think that with every year of college, it would be easier to say goodbye; boy was I wrong.

See, growing up, my sister and I were 6 years apart so it was hard for us to ever relate until about a year ago. She realized I wasn't the annoying little 6 yr. old always tagging along. And I

finally saw that she had more knowledge than I gave her credit for. We learned that we had more similarities than we thought! It was a great thing, and our relationship is stronger than ever now. We talk more often and we laugh more than fight. I'm going to miss her so much more now. As for my parents, this summer was fantastic. Through the years I've learned, more recently, that they were pretty much always right. S

o now, we have more fun and I love it. I'm going to miss them even more this time leaving.

Also, I have fought my mother SO HARD to resist learning to cook. It never interested me, and I never had a desire to learn. I figured when I needed to cook, I could look up a recipe online and make it (talk about growing up in a technologically advanced era!). But this summer I gave in and told my mom I would love for her to pass on her recipes and tips for me to use in the apartment this year. She was thrilled. :) In learning, I decided that with my memory, (very much unlike an elephant's) I would write it down and make a "college cookbook" out of them! I don't have a huge amount of meals to put in it, but I figured I would add to it as I learned. I've already started making the pages for it and I can't wait to show you guys the finished product. Catch you on the next post!