Returning is something that everyone will do for the rest of their lives, whether it be a return to a thought, feeling, place or season.

Spring Break is a week-long connecting tunnel that stands between winter and spring. Returning to school on the other side of it can be both invigorating and stressful as the intensity of weather and assignments heat up.

When you return to something it feels new because it is different from whatever norm that was recently established as being your daily routine. It is the emotional attachments that exist for things that can make a place visited for the second time or a rerun of “The Wonder Years” bring a smile to your face and a tear to your eye, regardless of the stretch of time charted in between.

While I stopped at home after my Spring Break trip, a sense of urgency grew inside of me, leading to confusion and anxiety. This happened after my dad reminded me that I will be done with school after next December with or without a diploma. His redundant words were slightly harsh to my ears as I only took half of the meaning in. I have trained myself to take the rest of the importance embedded in the words and save it to be filtered back out though a cushion of time as I repeat in my head, “I have a semester left after this.”

But as time grows shorter, I find myself letting more in.

So this time, as I walked away from my dad while he ranted his usual spiel about how I will be in for the shock of my life after I graduate, I felt uneasy. It was as if this time the presence of his words ripped off a layer of my protective shell of youth, leaving me in confusion. I felt like I was in limbo, caught between the life of a student lacking in responsibilities and the life of an adult, which I have no clue how to live. The words “on my own” have yet to take a real meaning in my life.

After I got back to school, I walked into my room for the first time in a week and suddenly paid more attention to detail. I took more care in turning on the light switch and I set my bags down nicely on the floor instead of just throwing my things just anywhere.

While walking around campus Monday I noticed more faces around campus. The presence of big puffy winter jackets, hats and gloves were not weighing students down. As they walked around campus in lighter jackets and sweatshirts, students seemed to have fully developed spring fever.

After the six weeks left in the semester some students will return home, return to work, or maybe even summer school. The warmth of summer will kick everyone into their summer routines as they try to stay on track toward their goals.

But there comes a point when all of the crazy days and different routines that seem to make no sense lead to the endpoint of attaining your goals. Reaching the one common goal in life – to find oneself – really just takes you back to where you began, but in a purer form.

The only catch is that the twisting, bumpy path leading there has to be taken, regardless of the fact that it leads back to the beginning. The only difference is that this time you stand taller.

It is a huge and confusing oddity that seemingly exists as a direct reflection of the very perplexities in life. Nothing seems to make sense while you are doing it, but when it is over you realize that what you were looking for was always there. The different paths taken then become a return to innocence – a fresh familiar beginning.