Life back home is sweet. Home-cooked meals, a couch for watching Netflix, pajama days until the end of time. But what happens when you leave the front door and face the outside world? As a college student returning home to the site of some of your most glorious (or embarrassing) days, there is huge potential for awkward moments or encounters. Be on the lookout for some of these common awkward moments:
Running into a teacher at the grocery storeÂ
So, you’re psyched to go grocery shopping with your mom. Who wouldn’t be? It’s been months since you’ve walked through the aisles, smelled the fresh fruit, sampled gourmet cheeses and actually had a fridge big enough to hold it all. As you walk past the milk in your sweats, eyes wide at all the varieties of milk that actually exist, your freshman year math teacher wanders by and catches your eye. She wants to know everything about school, what you’re majoring in, what math classes you’ve taken. You nod and smile and answer the right questions, even though you look like you’ve just been hit by a car and you just want to keep staring at the milk.
Going to a spin classes with your younger sister
Your friends are all still at school but you are dying to hit up SoulCycle to get a little workout in, pre-bathing suit time. You reluctantly take your little sister and all of her annoying middle school friends with you. You pick a bike in the back and try and tune out the incessant chatter of small children, giving the older, more sophisticated members of the gym an apologetic glance as they roll their eyes. But it’s too late. Your mom is thrilled you are doing something with your sister, and she is already bragging to all of her friends and setting up a time for tomorrow. You are stuck for the week.
Finding out that your favorite Thai food place is out of business
You’ve got the perfect evening set up. Head to the absolute best Thai food restaurant for an early dinner, then hit up the movie theater next door to catch up on all those films people are always talking about. You’ve timed it all out, set up the details with friends, and are out the door. But after a third time circling the spot, you are beyond confused. You call them up and find out they’ve gone out of business. So much for dinner plans. Too bad you missed the going away party.
Seeing the high school freshmen that have been friending you
You’ve been ignoring these friend requests for a while now. Overeager freshmen from your high school have been friending you faster than Road Runner tearing down the mountain cliff. You’ve ducked, dipped, dived and dodged them well. That is, until now, when a posse of them come right at you on the street. You recognize them, whether or not you’ll admit it. They recognize you, even though they play it “cool” in front of their “college friends.” You quickly look down, but they know you know them. The damage has been done.
You may not get tangled in all of these snafus before you head back to the Hilltop but there’s a chance you may experience one of them. Our best advice: Don’t leave your house. Or do. You may as well embrace the awkwardness, knowing most of the people you run into aren’t Hoyas and you are. Poor things.
