Christmas break is usually a time for Gannon students to travel back to their homes to reunite with family they’ve not seen for many months. Since I am originally from Erie, the farthest I have to travel is the 20 miles back to my hometown. I usually stay in my apartment and just go home for the holiday.

Since I stay in my apartment over break, I get to watch the transformation that takes place on campus. That transition is the one from a bustling college campus to a ghost town. The best part is that it literally happens in about six hours. Suddenly the main pedestrian highway, A.J.’s way, is desolate; the Palumbo Academic Center is so quiet you could hear a pin drop; and the Power Room in the Waldron Campus Center really isn’t using any power at all.

During the first few days of break, it was a little weird not having all of the student commotion take place around me,  but I got used to it. The week after that, I realized that it wasn’t the commotion that I was missing, it was my family. Not my biological family, but my Gannon family.

The transition from friendship to family-life happened so subtly that I didn’t even realize it had happened. It all clicked a few days after New Year’s when a few of my “family members” came back to Gannon. We had an impromptu game night and played a wide variety of board games. One of them — Boxers or Briefs —  required that you know your opponents pretty well. Well, all of us definitely had that requirement under control. We decided as a group that we knew each other better than we knew ourselves individually.

Realizing this solidified my love for Gannon, yet again. The atmosphere and community that Gannon provides really does foster these close friendships. So my break ends up in a bit of a different experience than most other college students. Instead of me traveling far away to see my family, my (college) family travels far away from me, but it’s always worth it when break is over.

Would you like to see how other Edge editors are ringing in the New Year? Check out Kathleen’s blog, “New Year Brings Dramatic Changes.”