When you move more than an hour away to go to college you realize some things.

1. People do not say that you moved.

They say you went "away," like you were put into jail or had a horrible zombie virus and had to go into the infirmary and never came back. I'm not quite sure why this is yet. All I know is that where I'm from if you leave the state for college, you might as well have gone into a church wearing a devil's costume the way people talk about you.

2. No one will visit.

Really, no one. Not your family, not your friends. No, not even your best friend, in fact, you'll be lucky if they remember your name after how sloshed they get their whole first week of classes.

3. People will not only not stay in touch with you despite all these social media, but, they will ignore you.

It will not happen all at once but little by little you'll stop hearing from them until you realize it's been months since you last spoke. It hurts. Don't be surprised. Get over it quickly.

4. People will ask you where you are from and then get offended if they do not know where it is even though that is their fault and they should learn geography.

That may sound a little hardcore judge-mental, but I'm from Newark, Delaware. When I introduce myself to people here in North Eastern Pennsylvania I usually just say i'm from Delaware (because if I say Newark they think I mean new jersey, then correct me that I'm saying where I am from wrong, they think I'm joking when I explain to them it also exists in Delaware, then correct me again on how to pronounce it), which is a whole state, and I've had several people not know where that is.

5. If you have an accent, your new friends will make fun of you.

If you use different slang than them, they will think you are weird. If they're worth any of your, they'll love you for all your regional-istic attributions.

6. All your friends back home, who all went from high school to college together, are basically still in high school but drunk half the time

7. All of those friends are also not growing as people one bit, and if anything they are becoming lesser quality person.

8. You will probably be a minority if you go to an out of state school, it will suck at first.

You will feel alone because no one else has the same hometown pride as you do. Not one fuck will be given by anyone else about your problem nor will it be understood by all the "staties."

*Staties: One from the state in which they attend college, usually lives within an hour of the college, knows half the kids there from graduating with them from the same high school, some how think they're better than everyone else yet they hate it at school the most.

9. You will grow so much as a person because of all the changes around you

10. You'll learn how important it is to love yourself, when you realize it's you against the world at this big school.

This is important. Make note to love yourself.

11.You'll start off going home a lot to try to keep up with family and friends.

You will then get tired of the long drives for people who obviously would not put forth the same effort for to come see you or even meet you in the middle. At this point of exhaustion you'll stop worrying so much about going back home because you'll realize it is a waste of time.

12. You were only friend with a lot of people in high school out of convenience and they were only friends with you for the same reason. That's okay.

You'll meet the best friends of your life were you are not ("away").

13. Don't pack your closet full of gear from your favorite home teams, but bring some of it.

Because there will be days where it rains not only outside your window, but inside your soul and even down the cheeks of your face, and having a little piece of where you come from makes things a little easier sometimes.