Dear High School Senior,

First off congratulations on getting into college! It may seem scary, getting ready to leave the safety behind the walls of your hometown high school, and adventuring into the outside world. But don't worry. By this time next year you'll have made a new life for yourself, as well as many new friends, stories, and more importantly memories. High school may be coming to a close, but your life is just beginning.

To those of you still waiting on your acceptance letter to that dream school, don't worry. It will come.

Now for most of you, going off to college is a right of passage, one you just can't wait for. Not only will you be attending a school for your dreams, but most of you will also be living on your own for the first time ever, which comes with a lot of exciting milestones. In just a few months you'll be picking out matching dorm room sets with your future roommate/best friend, decorating a small portion of space to match your personality, and spending late nights staying up getting to know your floor/dorm-mates. All of that and more awaits you. And I'm sure many of you will begin counting down to move-in-day, as soon as your high school graduation passes.

But for some of you, those milestones will never come. Let's face it; going to college is pretty expensive. And if you make the decision that I did, choosing your dream school over community college, there's a lot of cost that scholarships and student loans just won't cover. If the funds just aren't there for you to cover both tuition AND housing costs, you'll have to make a difficult decision, one I feel almost every commuter dreads making. Do you choose to attend a school close to home and just drive there to save money, or do you take out even more student loans in order to live on campus so you can have the "official" college experience?

Now I consider myself lucky, my first choice school is only twenty minutes or so from my hometown, two towns over to be exact. But I always just assumed I would live on campus, since that's what college students did. Alas, the funds weren't there and the decision was made that I would commute. I won't lie to you, I was heartbroken. I thought that my college experience would never be like the one's I had grown up watching in movies, or from the stories my older siblings and cousins had told me.

To be honest, it wasn't the same experience I had thought it would be.

It was better.

Through my school's Commuter Club (shoutout to CIA!), I was able to branch out into a community I never would have known about if I had lived on campus. In my first semester as a college student, I made so many friends, memories, and inside jokes that I really didn't feel like I was missing out on the college experience. The late night drives and adventures with friends are the memories I'll hold dear at the end of my four years. Granted, while I do still browse the College Section at Target when it comes around, I wouldn't change my commuter lifestyle for anything.

So to all of you who will be registering as a commuter when filling out your final college paperwork, I want you know something very important. Just because you are a commuter does not make you less than a resident student.

It took me a long time to realize that, and it may take a while for you too. And that's okay.

Eventually you'll realize that being a commuter comes with it's own set of experiences. Some good, some bad, and some that resident students will never have.

As long as you branch out, get involved, and take full advantage of your schools clubs and activities, you'll feel less and less like a commuter and more like a part of the community.

Sincerely,

A Fellow Commuter