You had been looking forward to seeing your parents and friends for weeks! But when you actually got to Kingsport, everything just felt wrong.
Every time you had to stop your car to let another gaggle of summer tourists to cross the street, it felt like you were trapped in place for an hour. After the cool forests and sparse cabins of Camp Cedarcrest, Kingsport's houses felt cramped and close together.
And you just knew that you were heading toward the rules and restraints of your parents' house.
Your house? Their house? It's harder to tell these days.
And then there was the huge pile of reading waiting for you. There's the common first-year reading: the book that every incoming student to your university reads and then discusses during orientation. And then there's the syllabus from your English class, with a book that you're supposed to have read by the time classes start.
You're home in the past, present, and future, all at the same time.
In Your Parents' Kitchen