Going to school close to home can be a great perk.

Many of my classmates that I went to high school with decided to go to college far away from home, including myself … at first. However, after going to school far away and missing the little things to now being a student close to home, I have realized how advantageous it can be to go to school close to home. What do you think?

I am always missing my dog, home cooked meals and my family, so it is a great feeling to have the ability to just catch an hour train ride back to my hometown and get off of campus for a while. When I was living hours away from home during my first semester, it was nearly impossible to hop on the train after classes in the afternoon and be back on campus the next morning for a full day of classes.

Sometimes there are nights that I just want to go home to get a break from campus. It can be relieving to know that it is easy to fall back on your home after a full day of school. Moreover, it can be healthy to leave the college bubble and clear your mind from the responsibilities of college.

There is nothing like giving your mind a rest and heading home for a night. If you have the time, I totally recommend it. Sleeping in your own bed, eating home cooked meals, seeing your siblings and petting your dog are easy ways to remind yourself of the life that you have outside of school.

It can be easy to move on with your life and not spend time thinking about the home life that shaped you to become the person you are in your more mature, independent life.

On a less serious note, one of the most understated perks of going to college close to home is that you don’t ever have to do your own laundry at school. If you are like me, you just can never find the time to do laundry … or at least that’s the excuse that I use to watch Netflix and nap instead of doing laundry in the communal room and worrying if someone is going to unload my wash the second that the machine is done.

However, when living close enough to home, there’s no need to do laundry in the building wash room. It is nice to use your own machine from time to time.

A home environment can be different depending on the person, but I personally love going home from time to time, and not just for breaks that are scheduled on the academic calendar. I find it difficult to just leave my old life behind and only visit it occasionally when going home because my life would not be the same if the bits and pieces that I associate from home did not contribute to who I am now.

Who would we be without the adding factors of our pre-college life? Don’t we owe it to ourselves to get a quick glimpse back to the life that we had before college? We learn from ourselves and definitely benefit from the experiences that we have had, the lessons we learn and the times that we live in.

It is because of that, along with the free meals, easy access to laundry and relationship we have outside of school that going to school close to home can be a great perk.