I went far away for school. My college is about 1,500 miles away from my home, which is equivalent to about eight to 10 hours of traveling one way, provided nothing goes wrong. Now I know some of you reading this may have gone farther, some closer, and all of you probably think your journey to and from school is long and annoying, but as I head back home for spring break I wonder, for what feels like 100th time, "Why did I go so far away?" And I decided I wanted to devote this article to what it's like to decide to go to college out of state.

So first off, the negatives. I don't know about the rest of you, but I absolutely hate flying. Above all, I hate flying more than once in one day. Both of those things are a necessity if I want to get home in any reasonable amount of time. Flying is also not exactly cheap, and it just seems like some kind of extravagance when you already have a $60,000 a year education to pay for. Then there are times where you just miss home and things you associate with home like places you grew up going to. Places that nobody at your school knows because they didn't grow up near you. To make matters worse, all the students who did stay in-state at your school talk about things and places that they know from their childhood, and you have no clue what they're talking about. Seriously, when you all start talking about the neighborhoods around Seattle or specific islands in the Sound, I get very confused very quickly.

But, as you may have realized, there are some positives too. I know sometimes it's draining to be so far away from home, and sometimes (whenever I am on the plane) I seriously wonder why I choose to be so far away from home, but then I remember that I love my school. I love being able to look out across the wheat fields and see mountains (even if they are just baby mountains) when my home is nothing but flat. I love the fog that occasionally descends on campus. I love learning about all the different places where my friends come from, trying to explain where I come from and also talking to the rare Minnesotans on campus about home. I love finding out new things about the new state I call home. And despite all the hours it takes to get from one home to the other, I am glad that I am where I am. And secretly, I'm glad that it does take me so long to get home. Not all my moments are easy and that's good because otherwise how would I grow?

So, over the course of the last semester, I came to a realization that I hadn't made when I was applying to college. Proximity to home is not a cut and dry, good or bad thing. It's far more complex than that. When I applied to colleges, I wanted to go far away, and I did. I'm still glad about that. I love where I am. But, when I applied I really only focused on the good things that would come from it, not the negatives that my mom kept reminding me of. I ignored the reality of the distance which is silly because now I live in that reality. I also realize that the same goes for those who stayed close to home. There are good things and bad things about staying close to home, too. I'm just less familiar with what those are.

Thanks for reading!