You really don’t realize how much you’ll miss home once you start college.

You don’t think you’ll miss your own room, because the idea of having a roommate makes you think you’ll be living the full college experience. You don’t think you’ll miss home-cooked food, because when you went to orientation, you thought dining hall food was the best thing to be bestowed upon this planet we call Earth. You don’t think you’ll miss your own functional washer and dryer, because now you can student-charge your life away doing laundry.

I thought all of these things when I got dropped off at MU in August, and I never could have been more wrong in my entire life.

Don’t get me wrong, having a roommate is cool and all — at least for me. But after a few weeks of waking up to your roommate’s alarm when you don’t have to get up for another hour, or not being able to fall asleep because your suitemates decide to have a party in their room every night, you’ll miss having your own place.

The bed is a whole other issue in itself. It’s cool for maybe a couple days, because college life is some new, foreign culture that blinds you to how small the bed really is. Only about a week after you’ve gotten into the swing of things do you finally begin to notice that you may as well be sleeping in a Smurf’s bed.

When I came home to sleep in my queen-sized bed in my own room, I felt like a queen myself for about two seconds. Until I realized I’d have to go back to a bed half that size, in a room where who knows what time I’ll wake up. But hey, that’s the college experience, right?

Do you know what else is part of the college experience? Not having actual food because, no, dining hall food is not as amazing as you thought it was at orientation.

Coming home to slow-cooked ribs and homemade apple cake really makes Baja Grill’s Macho Nachos seem a lot less macho and a lot more, well, gross. Not to mention, Rollins’ do-it-yourself waffles don’t even compare to Mom’s home-cooked waffles, so you bet I’m shoving as many of those fluffy waffles into my bag so I can have real food when I’m sitting in my miniature-sized room.

The thing you’ll probably miss most about home is having a functional washer and dryer. But a laundry room in or close to the dorm is awesome, you say? Sure, if you enjoy watching people become frustrated over the money they’re wasting for their clothes not to dry all the way or for the washers that don’t drain the water.

Seriously, I may as well just throw my clothes outside when it’s raining with some laundry detergent on them and then hang them on tree branches to dry on a nice day. Look at that, it’s eco — and wallet — friendly!

Now, I’m not saying that college is terrible and you should never leave home. However, when you do go home, it really does feel like the happy-go-lucky ending of a Disney movie … until your parents see your student charge account.