At any large university, the percentage of out-of-state students is pretty high. For example, about 60 percent of the student body at the University of Alabama is out-of-state, myself included. While students who live in the general vicinity of the school may drive home on breaks, the majority of out-of-state students fly home.

As an out-of-state student who has flown by myself several times now, I can vouch for the fact that flying by yourself is an entirely different experience than flying with friends and family.

1. The Goodbye:

When flying by yourself there is usually a dramatic curb-side goodbye either to mom and dad, your boyfriend, or whomever you bribed to drive you to the airport. There is usually lots of hugging, and lots of cars honking because they want your parking spot.

2. The TSA Security Checkpoint:

Ugh, this is the worst. Hopefully you won't have to wait in a mile long line, If you get lucky enough, however there is no guarantee because sometimes security can take forever. Since you are flying by yourself, you have no one to keep you calm and collected, as you begin to panic about missing your flight.

Once you finally get up to the actual checkpoint you feel so much pressure to move quickly and watch your bag. You haven't taken your laptop out of your backpack and now it has to go in its own separate bin? Too bad. You also are told to remove your shoes, this is always awkward when you forget socks. It's your turn to enter the full-body scanner. But don't forget, "never leave your personal belongings until they have entered the x-ray scanner."

3. The Stock Up:

So now that you have made it past security, you're on your way to your gate when you see the Hudson News Stand. Obviously you have to stop in and get the latest issues of Cosmo and People to keep you entertained on the plane, and some snacks to eat while reading and a Coke to wash it all down with. All for the low, low price of...wow everything at the airport is way more expensive than it should be. Throwback to the days when you would fly with your parents and they would buy you all the coloring books and snacks that you wanted to keep you quiet.

4. The Wait:

As you sit bored and alone at your gate while waiting to get on the plane, you begin to people watch. You start to scope out who is going to be on your flight and who will be your possible seat buddy.

You also look for the people that you might recognize from classes or previous trips home. I don't know what your experience is, but every single time I fly home (doesn't matter what time of day) there is always the same guy on my flight.

This is also the point, that if you're lucky, you will find a friend and decide to sit together on the flight.

5. Boarding The Plane:

Finally! After 30 minutes of siting at the gate, you arrived extremely early because TSA is always a toss-up, you finally get to board.

If you're flying on an airline that assigns seating this is a piece of cake because you just find your assigned seat on the plane.

However, if you are flying on an airline that offers open seating, like Southwest, a favorite of broke college students, this can be stressful. This is for two reasons. First of all, the availability of seating is on a first-come-first-served basis, and is based on your boarding pass number. So if you have a bad boarding number, say bye bye to a nice window seat, and hello to being squished in the middle. Reason two is that you have to weigh your options: do you want to sit next to that creepy old man, or that cute guy that looks about your age?

6. The Flight:

Now that you have picked your seat and secured your seatbelt, you settle in for the main event. Depending on whether or not the person sitting next to you is cute, determines when you put your headphones in. If you think you might spark a conversation, wait a little longer to put them in. However if you are next to an old couple that looks rather chatty, put them in as soon as possible. Take it from someone who got the entire life story of a retired couple once...

Now sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.