When picking a college to attend, I looked at colleges in all 50 states, from big public universities to the small private schools, I weighed my options heavily before deciding to attend Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, OK. While every college I looked at had a lot of things to offer I kept going back to NEO.

When I finally settled on NEO, I got a lot of fuss for choosing to go to a junior college. People asked why I didn't go straight to university considering I already had 18 college credit hours, and it was simply because I just wanted to start out small --ease my way into college so to speak.

Since then it has become so much more than that. I am constantly reminded that I am a person and I have so many people that want to see me succeed. It's no surprise that at most big universities the average class size is 200+ and you are just another face in a crowded room.

At NEO all of my professors know me by name, I have talked to each of them on various occasions and they are consistently reminding myself and the other students alike that they are our support system, that they want to see us succeed.

NEO is like a big family. I do realize that at bigger universities you can know a lot of people but there is no way you can actually know everyone. Here that is actually an achievable goal. Walking around campus daily I constantly see someone I know or recognize whether that be the soccer player that sits beside me in math, someone on the horse judging team, the volleyball player I played against in high school, or even someone from my home town because there is three of us at NEO.

The most important reason I chose to go to a JuCo before a big university is because it feels like home to me. I am in my fourth week of school and I couldn't be any happier with the friends that I have made, the professors I have to guide me, or the people I have to take on this journey with me. I found my home away from home at NEO as well as a family that is irreplaceable. Yes, I do plan to attend OSU after my first two years of college are over. However, the beautiful thing about that is that a lot of the people that I have met at NEO so far are going to go on to OSU with me as well so I won't be starting that journey alone either.

I give props to the people who were brave enough to jump right into a big four year university however, I wouldn't trade my small JuCo for anything.

"Go Go NEO!"