why i can't wait for friday.

It's almost Friday, and I'm more excited than usual.

Why?

Tomorrow I'm visiting my cousin at college.

This is awesome for many, many reasons. First of all, she and I are the closest out of our family, close enough to consider each other sisters. We've recently been having a rough time keeping close, not only because we were so busy in our senior year (hers in high school, mine in college), but because we couldn't relate to each other. My college career was ending, which meant that everything that I had gotten used to was going to change, and not necessarily in a way that I liked. Her life, however, was just beginning, as she enjoyed her senior year and got ready to go to college.

Whatever the reasons, now that I've settled a bit into the post-grad life and she's finally gotten her freedom in college, all the annoyances we had with each other are fading. While things are far from perfect, they're definitely getting better. I had felt, at one point, like we were reverting back to being simply cousins and not acting like sisters. I don't feel like that anymore.

The second reason I'm looking forward to visiting is that she ended up going to the same college as I did. Visiting her means I go back to my old campus, my old freshmen dorms, my old... dining hall. Well, maybe not there. We're doing a mini walking tour, just to see what's new (like the controversial public art pieces that were just installed), then taking a trip to the mall to look at Christmas things. Even the mall is a place full of college memories, where I shopped for Secret Santa gifts and a last-minute strapless bra for the EMS formal (where I first met The Boy).

I am incredibly lucky to have her at the college where I "grew up." One of my bigger problems recently is my anxiety with new places and situations, so if I were visiting a college I didn't go to, I'd probably be a bit of a mess. But since I'm so familiar with the drive there, where to park, and where everything is, it just feels like I'm going home.