Me: I’m currently attending Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. California is too far and too expensive for any weekend visits, but I do have winter and spring break to go home. Unfortunately, since I am on the Division 1 Heavyweight Men’s Crew Team, a portion of my winter break and my entire spring break is spent on training trips with my team in various, warmer locations on the east coast. With that said, though I may not be physically close to my parents anymore, I feel just as– if not more– emotionally close to them being away at college. Because I can’t see them multiple times a day, they don’t always know every detail of what’s happening in my life and because we’ve cultivated such a close relationship, I feel the need to let them know. So, I am completely guilty of calling my parents individually multiple times day to make sure they’re updated on any new developments, for help on even the most trivial issues and even, if I’m simply just walking home alone and want some company.

Jackson: My brother is thirteen years old and attends our local, public middle school, Lincoln Middle School, in Santa Monica, California. While he is physically a lot closer than I am, he is so bombarded with activities that he’s rarely ever home. There’s soccer practice, robot practice, competitions, volunteering, tournaments and coding class. However, since my parents no longer have another child’s conflicting schedule to deal with they’ve become very focused on my brother’s activities which has created a medium for discussion and family bonding. It is also worth noting that my brother is at the end of his middle school career, so hanging out with your parents isn’t all the rage right now. He spends a lot of time skateboarding and surfing with friends all over town which has left the house pretty void of children most of the time. With that said, he’s always been a little more of a closed book than I have so it does take a little more prying to find out about anything not related to academics or extracurriculars but I think he’s coming around on the emotional front.

Parents: My parents both reside in Santa Monica, California where they are still married and continue to work full-time. They’ve both explained that over the years of priming their children for college and chauffeuring their children from activities, they’ve learned to keep their free time open to just us. Now, with me at college and my brother out of the home most of the time, they’ve grown bored at home without any children to really pull them away from the house. They’ve both said the house has grown a lot quieter and they reluctantly admit, they miss my brother and I fighting and screaming all the time.

“I miss my babies needing me every second of the day– but I guess the quiet is nice sometimes. But it’s really not that nice and I want you to come home.” – My Mother