There's no place like home

It's Sunday, and in AU world, this means that it is the day after bid day. Maybe that doesn't mean anything to you, but to me it means I am the most homesick I have been yet. My job and my life outside of school keep me busy, but today as I am watching football (Steelers rock!) and relaxing with friends, I find myself wanting to cry and get on the next available flight so that I can meet my new sisters. 


It's not that I don't miss my biological family (I do), and I'm sure I'll sob like a small child when I get home just out of sheer joy and overwhelming emotion, but I spent my last 5 years at AU. I formed a family there, and some of my favorite people in this universe currently still reside there. They are, as we say, half of my heart, and the fact that I am not there, wearing my new bid day shirt (which are adorable), hugging my little, eating cake and singing Phi Mu songs, makes me miss home like nothing else could. I look at hundreds of pictures, but they don't do the whole scene justice. In my head I hear "I will be t-r-u-e TRUE to P-h-i-M-u Phi Mu" and in my heart I feel a little tug that doesn't seem to want to leave. 


I suppose the pain is worse because I know I won't be back in Ohio until mid-December, and by then all my sisters will have left campus for Christmas and they won't return til I am back in New Mexico. The same goes for May as well. Unless I am blessed with time off and enough money, a return trip to AU just doesn't seem feasible, and this is heartbreaking for a girl whose best memories involved her sisters. 


So here's to you, Phi Mu ladies- here's to the sleepovers, the late-nights, the long conversations, the hugs and the laughter. Here's to remembering what it is to feel connected to someone who isn't a blood relative but who you know should be. I would attempt to list all of your names here, but you know I cannot. There are too many of you (and that is something of which I am exceptionally proud). Here's to my second family, my home away from home, and the people who know me best. Here's to Phi Mu.