In our groups we discussed the return threshold, which we thought is when you finally come home and your not really excepted. It is a bittersweet time, your are sort of happy that you are home yet by most people you are not really excepted. I can think of many times in my life where I have gone home and it has not felt very warm welcoming.
The summer before my freshman year of college I decided to go and rent a beach house in atlantic city with my two best friends. I wanted to know that I could truly live on my own before I went to college five hours away. My parents weren’t really happy about this decision yet they had no choice, I was an adult and there was nothing they could say about it. I had the time of my life living there yet we ran into a bunch of problems and had to return home early. I figured my parents would be thrilled that I was coming home because they gave me a bunch of garbage before. Boy was I surprised.
I remember when I called them to tell them I was coming home they didn’t seem too interested, but my parents don’t ever sound really interesting via phone. Sure enough when I got home my parents were watching tv. They didn’t even get there eyes off the tv to say anyting, they just said “oh hi”. I was so angry at them, they didn’t even seem to care. I remember I stormed off into my room and just started blasted music, why were they acting like this? I found out that in fact they did miss me, they were just angry that I had to move back home early because I lost my job. But crossing that return threshold was hard, not only was I upset that my parents didn’t seem interested, but I had to leave the beach house early which was my last summer before college. So needless to say it was bittersweet.
