School Daze

After graduating college, I returned a handful of times over the course of a few years. I've now spent the last three weekends out there and, boy, am I exhausted!

It's not that I didn't enjoy college while it lasted, I just don't understand the longing to return that everyone else seems to have. Now that I've gone back and spent a significant amount of time there, it has reaffirmed my feeling that I'm happy to be done with it. I even made a mental list of the things I do and do not miss about college. Things I miss: having most of my friends in close quarters, being able to sleep in late, having the energy to stay up late. Things I don't miss: pretty much everything else -- the food, lack of privacy, an unstable schedule, the drama, the immaturity, the daily annoyances, I could go on and on.

Looking around me, though, I noticed that these people who long for their college days really do exist. They're not the urban legend I thought they were -- they eat, breathe, and sleep college well into their twenties. Is there something they experienced that I did not, or vice versa? What is it that draws them back to the same environment I avoid like the plague?

Like I said, there isn't something that I particularly disliked about college. I had good classes, great friends, and a fair amount of extracurricular activities. I gave myself a lot of responsibilities and I also had a lot of fun. But once it was over, I was definitely glad to be done with it and I did not look back. Is there something wrong with me, or with these people who can't seem to let go? Maybe I'm just becoming old and cranky at a young age...

What was your college experience like? Have you been back since you left and did you like it? Why or why not?