Growing up, I always knew I would leave my home state for school. Not because I disliked my state, but rather because of an innate sense of wanting more. Wanting to see more, experience more, and do more.

Now, when you think of wanting to see and do, you don't necessarily think of small-town Oxford, Ohio, for your college destination. I didn't either, to begin with. I desired the busy and exciting environment of a big city and dreamt of attending school in Chicago for years, but as soon as I visited Miami, I knew the city life would have to be put on hold.

I remember in the weeks leading up to my freshman year at Miami my parents kept asking me if I was nervous about going to a school hours from home and where I didn't know anyone. I kept giving them the same answer: No. I don't think they believed me, but I was not nervous, I was excited. I wanted to get away from the things and people I was used to and, at the risk of sounding cliché, to reinvent myself. I could become anyone I wanted because no one knew me.

Going to a different school than your friends or a school where you don't know anyone at all forces you to challenge yourself. You have to put yourself out there and try to make the friends everyone talks about meeting when they're in college. The ones that stand up at your wedding or your kids call "aunt" and "uncle" despite the lack of blood relation. It is definitely intimidating at first, but it becomes easier. I came here and lived with two girls I had never met before, but they became some of my closest friends. I now live with a girl I initially didn't know that well, but she is now an integral part of my life here at school, along with all the other people I have met in the past year.

Leaving home definitely takes some adjusting. I remember it was strange seeing all my high school friends who stayed in-state go to school with each other, but I also remember that I didn't feel like I lost something. It was then that I fully realized I had made the right decision.

Leaving home can be hard. I still sometimes miss things that I can't experience here at school, but it became one of the best decisions I ever made and makes finally returning home that much sweeter.