Leaving Your Loved Ones for College

Don’t let the title of this post fool you—leaving your family is definitely a hard adjustment. However, by “loved ones,” I mean your pets.

In my junior year of high school my mom walked into my room and, out of nowhere, asked if I thought we should get a dog. I laughed at her. My family was the last bunch to ever become pet-owners, especially not a dog. Like, maybe a fish or something. But the idea of getting a dog was laughable. She agreed with me, and that was the end of the conversation.

A week later, upon returning home the morning after sleeping at my friend’s house, I walk in to my sister holding this two-ounce rat-looking thing. “This is our new dog, Minnie” I remember my sister saying. My first thought, naturally, was to question whether or not that really was a dog—it was just way too small, it looked more like a gerbil. Sure enough, my family bought an Applehead Teacup Chihuahua named Minnie, and I was excluded from the entire process. As you can assume, it took me a while to get used to Minnie (I love her now, but I didn’t want a pet in the first place).

Fast forward a year and I’m leaving for college, and I cried actually for days over the thought of leaving Minnie. She grew on me, and she was one of the saddest parts of leaving home for me. Likewise, she’s one of the most exciting parts of coming home. In order to get my daily fix, she’s always the first one I ask to see on Facetime with my mom (sorry, mom) and I request several photos of Minnie be texted to me every week. Getting to see her after not being home for weeks is always something to look forward to!

Leaving your pets for college can be hard, but with the advancements of Facetime/messages, they’re only a phone call away.