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The shortest day of the year! Yay! I love the winter holiday stack, but this is the first time I won’t be home for most of it. In fact, I’m only going back for Christmas… Solstice, New Years, and even my birthday will be celebrated solo. LFG for independence I guess?

Sometimes I wonder if I pushed myself out of the house too fast— If I might’ve been able to bum around my hometown for a little longer. My parents don’t seem to care either way. Some people I know do that exact kind of bumming, while others left the instant graduation ended and haven’t looked back. I blame my short time home on work, relationships, etc. etc., but is there something deeper than that?

Here’s a happy memory-- Winter solstice of my freshman year. I went back to my hometown. A bunch of high school friends were still around at this point. All of us, my girlfriend included, and some other people who were still at home managed to get together for a big solstice party. We called it “Soupmas” since we all made soup. Yay!

However, I hadn’t seen much of my girlfriend at this point (We still lived apart). After things died down, the two of us wanted to be alone, so we snuck off into the night. We tried a french exit but I knocked off the door knob on the way out. Oopsies. Nevertheless the two of us ran off to the movies. We watched It’s a Wonderful Life (My first time!) on the big screen, the only two in the whole theater. We cried our eyes out. All that to say, it was a great night.

Today I could name two people back home for this year’s solstice. And I don’t think they talk anymore. So, in fear of coming off as the nostalgic type, reunion dinner parties are off the table. I know there are other reasons to visit home besides dinner parties (My family, my dog, my bed, my beaches and more), but I hope this story gets across why visits aren’t nearly as nice as they used to be.