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Dear Dad,

I don't care what anyone says...I'm a homebody at heart. These past two days have been the best I've felt since leaving for school almost two months ago. The feeling of being somewhere so familiar yet comforting & exciting is an emotion I want to feel forever.

I now know why I was anticipating so highly to go & see Ben in North Carolina this past summer relative to the first time during my first ever spring break of college---because I knew exactly what I was expecting & I couldn't wait to enjoy it all more once I returned. I'm starting to believe that this is why people question me when I say I'm not too enthuastic towards going out of the country to travel, but rather staying within the US to explore my own territory further.

It may seem odd to others to not want to experience something completely different than what I'm used to, but personally I want to feel like I'm home while traveling although (obviously) I'm not really home. I guess I have to give credit to myself for being so willing to move away from home for college in the first place, because I have to remember that I'm only feeling these nostalgic senses while coming home due to leaving in the first place.

This is all besides the point that I'm loving home so much that I just don't want to go back to school. Although college life near Philadelphia is great, this year I feel as though I'm actually living in the city. Not that I wasn't technically before, but last year guided me into the easier transition of life away from home by meeting the coolest people ever on the "better" side of what my campus community calls our school.

This year, these super awesome people are separated from each other which has proven to be bittersweet & just plain sad at the same time. With sirens every 5 minutes & time ticking as I watch people run to class from my window, living the real "Philly life" this year is not as picture perfect as I thought it would be.

Being in the bustling atmosphere that is the outskirts of the city on a day to day basis makes it bizarre to me how much my home in the Lehigh Valley feels like a home. I don't think any other place has felt much like this besides our picture-perfect, five person family home of my childhood just 10 minutes away from where I sit now.

I'm not only finding home in the physical state of my house but the people that have surrounded it in the past year or two. Mom & Nate, specifically, in addition to my boyfriend who's now visited more times than I can count. Envisioning these people & my fond love for them made me tear up for the first time in a while today as I thought about you. Imagining how badly I want for you to physically see all of us & the happiness that surrounds this house is indescribable.

It's now past this college girl's bedtime of 11pm (you probably aren't surprised by this as my reputation as a party animal) & tomorrow starts another great day within this much needed break at home. Thank you for blessing me with this time, in which I am forever grateful for you & God's gifts.

Talk to you soon---your daughter,

Lauren M Tauber