Wednesday 20 February 2019

Having a Home at Harlaxton

By: Krysta Wininger


You’ve just finished your first long weekend at Harlaxton. You’ve probably gotten back from a special place that you saved specifically for the long weekend – that extra day does, after all, make a large difference. But still, it seems as though you’ve returned all too soon, and the place you visited that was so near and dear to your heart feels left in the dust. It certainly doesn’t help that you’ve had to come back to where the weather is almost certainly colder and wetter.

But nonetheless, here you are, roaming the halls of Harlaxton once more, and you may be feeling as though Harlaxton is just an in-between place that you stay at while you visit all the places you’ve dreamt about since you were little.

Or maybe you’re on the other end of things. Maybe you don’t have extravagant travel plans or don’t have certain places tugging on the strings of your heart beckoning you.

Whatever the case is, we all might be getting to a point in the semester where the walls of Harlaxton feel like a belt you might be starting to outgrow… just a little too tight.

Until the end of the semester, Harlaxton is your home - even if that home feels a little too small at times - and it’s important that we all take the time to appreciate exactly what that means. Living at Harlaxton means scheduled meals, scheduled activities, scheduled times to leave, and scheduled times to return, but having a home at Harlaxton… well, that’s all about what you choose to do with time that isn’t booked.

Sometimes a new home isn’t about the things you take with you; it’s about the things you leave behind that make the place a part of you. Take a walk on the grounds of the manor and watch how your shoes leave molds on the hills – can you feel yourself leaving your mark? Walk up the stairs that thousands of students before you have also walked up, and revel in the fact that while their time has passed, your time is still right here, right now. This manor belongs to you.

When you leave here, a piece of you is inevitably going to stay here with Harlaxton – make sure it’s a piece of you that you want Harlaxton to keep. Hold on to this time here at the manor for as long as you can because before you know it, your time will be up like all those before you, and you’ll be asking yourself, “Did I do everything that I could to have the best experience I could? Did I make an impact? Did Harlaxton impact me? Did I use my time to make it all that it could be?”


Ask yourself those questions now with everything that you do at Harlaxton. Don’t reflect on how you made this your home after you’ve left – reflect on it every single day that you’re here. The semester may be a third of the way done, but you’ve still got over half of your time here. Make sure you’re making it a home you’ll keep with you forever. You’ll keep Harlaxton with you forever – make sure it keeps a piece of you, too.

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