Never in my life have I lived more than 20 minutes from Wheaton College. I grew up going to the Stupe for ice cream (before Sam's even existed) and I religiously attended the homecoming football games. Wheaton is my home and always has been home. When I began the notorious college decision process, I wanted to go anywhere but Wheaton College. It was too close to home and I was already so familiar with the campus. All my family had gone to Wheaton, and people seemed to expect that I would follow in their footsteps. I visited other colleges, but always found myself comparing them to Wheaton. My official campus visit to Wheaton confirmed that Wheaton was the place I needed to go, despite its location.
Now I am beginning my second year at Wheaton College and I could not be happier that I am a student here. However, going to college 10 minutes from home presents an interesting variety of unique experiences.
Here are 10 good, bad, and funny aspects of going to college 10 minutes from home.
The Good
1. You are already familiar with the campus, and never get lost when going to classes, dinner, chapel, or anywhere else.
2. You knew all of the Wheaton acronyms before freshman year even started. Orientation was a breeze because you already knew where the BGC was, that CPO was pronounced C-PO (not C-P-O), and that Anderson Commons should always be referred to as "Saga."
3. When all of your friends are booking flights home for Christmas and trying to find rides to the airport, you don’t even break a sweat. You finish your finals, call your mom, and about 20 minutes later you’re home for break.
4.Finding a home-cooked meal is pretty easy and you take advantage of this as often as possible.
The Bad
5. You literally run into your family everywhere and you don’t even know how that’s possible. You seem to know everybody and if you don’t know them, you probably have at least two mutual friends.
6. Without a car on campus, you begin to feel stir crazy. You know all of the cool places to eat or hang out, but you have no way of getting to them.
7. You already know how bad the Chicago winters are. You dread these winters even more than your poor friends from Florida and California. They don’t even know what to fear.
The Funny
8. You are related to at least one staff or faculty member. You have lost count of how many times you’ve explained to your friends that their Spanish professor is actually your mom’s cousin.
9. When your friends find out that you’re a fourth generation Wheaton student, they stare at you in disbelief for a solid five minutes. It’s really not a huge deal that all of your family reunions are made up of Wheaton alums.
10. You look through old photo albums and realized that you were literally destined to go to Wheaton, because you were wearing Wheaton apparel as a baby.
Going to college close to home has its ups and downs, but you wouldn’t give it up for anything! Being the local kid is the best.
