Picking a college can be difficult decision, with looking at prestige, acceptance rate, tuition and, of course, distance from your hometown. I know plenty of people who wanted nothing more than to go to a school close to home, and plenty who wanted to go far away, and, of course, the unsure. I get why going to school close to home can be tempting, why being far away could be terrifying, but personally I think it’s definitely worth it.
1. It’s a chance to live somewhere else.
If you really like where you live, it could be your only chance to go somewhere else. That’s one experience that could change everything.
2. You get responsibility with a safety net.
Living away from your parents forces you to be a little more mature. Campus environments in general help with that, but when you can’t go home whenever you want, it makes everything a little more intense. Of course, if you do mess up, you’re in a safer environment because you’ve still got people looking out for you.
3. You'll make a lot of friends from different places.
I, for one, go to school in the middle of nowhere, so practically everyone here is from different places. It’s actually really cool to know people from all over, even if it’s just mainly from one state.
4. And bond more with people from your area.
I cannot explain how excited I get when people give me their cell number and it has my area code. As soon as you find people who live in a two hour distance from you, you’re immediately like cousins. It’s a little weird when you think about it, going far away to bond with people you live near, but it’s a special kind of moment when it happens.
5. You actually start liking your hometown a little more.
Whether you left thinking your hometown was the best place on earth or the worst, you can’t help but get a little sentimental about it once you’re gone. Nostalgia or not, it’s a very real feeling, and it’s nice to be able to really appreciate where you’re from.
6. Nobody knows anything about you.
College is definitely a time to grow, and going to a school where nobody knows you can really help with that. It also makes you more likely to make new friends and to explore things none of your high school friends liked.
7. You learn how to live away from your family.
This is actually a bigger deal than you might think. Family is important, and chances are you haven’t had to do much without them before college. Living far from home gives you a chance to figure out how to do it, and can give you the confidence in knowing that you can do it on your own.
8. Your social skills get a lot better.
Personally, I’ve always had really awful social anxiety, and no matter how much I tried to work through it, I always fell a little short, mostly because I knew my mom would make the phone call or my dad would order food for me, etc. Living away from all that, it’s just you, and that might sound scary, but it really pushes you to interact and find a way to be comfortable doing it. Being able to order your own food is a skill, and you’ll be proud to have it.
9. You can test your prior relationships.
This one may sound daunting. Here’s the thing, as I stated in my last article, you’re not automatically going to lose all your high school friends because you’re going away. However, some of those friends probably aren’t people you want to stick with. Having that distance makes it easier to see who you want to keep up with, and who you’d rather just stop talking to. It also can show who’s not putting in the effort on their half, something you definitely deserve better than.
10. You can figure out who you are.
Maybe this sounds obvious, especially with the prior statements of new people and growing and becoming independent... but who you are is different. Having a new place, a new group and new opportunities, it lets you figure out who you’ve been all this time. You are not your family, your hometown, your best friend–you are you no matter where you are, even if it takes a few miles to figure that person out.
