I've lived in the same college town since I was two. I love the fact that I got to stay at home and go to college. I am saving so much money by staying at my house and I am taking out less loans. There is absolutely nothing wrong with EIU and I love it there. Eastern is a great school academically but I have to be honest. I only applied for two schools, Eastern and a small community college called Lake land. I know I'm not the only one that grew up in a college town so here are five things we all know to be true.

1. You know exactly the time of day to avoid being on the road

There are two points when you should never go on the road. Lunch time is a jumbled mess where almost the entire population is on the road at one time. The second time would be Fridays. Students are going home on Fridays and it is just better to stay off the road.

2. You know to avoid roads on move in day

Being a commuter, I don't have to worry about move-in day but I sure do hear about it. My mom and grandma always warn me, "be careful, it's move-in day". It is nothing against EIU students; nothing at all. Our small town doesn't really have the room for over four thousand people in just a few blocks.

3. You would rather go a town over to go to Walmart

Again it is nothing against EIU students. We love that this college is in our town but sometimes the students take over the town. No one enjoys super long lines at Walmart so people try to miss the lines. No, they aren't always successful but that is okay. You start to learn to go to Walmart either before the students get there or after about three weeks of classes.

4. You have more fast food places than you can even count

We have three Mexican restaurants in town, the original Jimmy Johns, and SIX pizza places. I love pizza as much as the next person, but six in a town of twenty-one thousand people is a little excessive. I hope that maybe we could upgrade a little and get some interesting food but it hasn't happened so far.

5. Your high school thinks that only one college exists

Like I said, I made the right choice by coming to EIU. I didn't really know about other colleges but I didn't mind. I don't know if other students of my class felt that way but EIU has always been apart of our lives. I've had EIU shirts as long as I can remember and I always remember student teachers from Eastern. I guess I just look up to them and couldn't see myself going to another school.

***Disclaimer - We LOVE Eastern. Everyone in town realizes how important Eastern is to our town. I'm not really sure that Charleston would be a town without Eastern.