Take me home, UT Vols

You can always tell who the out-of-staters are. We don't understand when we're offered a "pop." It takes a few seconds to process that "Indy" is short for Indianapolis, and we get funny looks when we say things like "ya'll."\nI am from Maryville, Tenn., which is near Knoxville, the hometown of the UT Vols and that lady who won "Survivor II." My backyard is the Smokey Mountain National Park, and I spend weekends climbing at the Obed River. I love my home and always will, but I was excited to travel six hours and two states away to IU.\nI never thought of homesickness as an issue. Sure, I cried when I said goodbye to my family, my boyfriend and my cat. But I didn't think I'd lie awake dreaming of my bed and my precious air conditioner.\nIt's funny how homesickness can creep up on the best of us. Certain sights, sounds and smells can evoke that sense of home at a moment's notice. You'll be sitting in your room trying to make sense out of finite math when all of the sudden the radio plays "Take Me Home, Country Roads." Even though you may not be John Denver's biggest fan, you find yourself humming along: "...to the place I belong..."\nOr maybe it's a night of reading, so you decide to flip on the television. Suddenly you're tearing up because "you wanna go where everybody knows your name." \nFor me, though, it was football that pulled my heartstrings. \nLet me preface this story by saying that I've never been to a UT game, and I've never wanted to. I don't think I've ever even watched a game all the way through on TV.\nMy roommate had gone home for the weekend, and I found myself alone on a Saturday afternoon. I was studying finite math, which is never a comforting experience. I decided to take a break and watch a movie. When I flipped on the TV, there it was: the Tennessee vs. Syracuse football game.\nMaybe it was loneliness, or maybe the frustration of finite math, but suddenly I was out of my chair, screaming at the television and cheering on the home team.\nDuring that game, I suddenly knew what John Denver was singing about. I missed my home. I missed getting up at the crack of dawn to drive to Wartburg and climb. I missed hearing my sister shake the house down practicing her cartwheels in the living room. I missed backing out of the obscenely long driveway at my boyfriend's house. I missed everyone who knew who I was "back when." During that game, there was nowhere I'd rather be than in my own front yard.\nWhen the game was over, I went back to studying and my life in Bloomington. I love it here, and I'm making lots of new friends. My dorm feels less like a cell and more like a home. I'm in no hurry to hop in the old Saturn and speed back to Maryville.\nBut once in a while, John's voice will ring in my ears. "Take me home, country roads, to the place I belong.."