It wasn't until the beginning of my Senior year of high school when it hit my class that we were about to graduate. We all discussed our plans together; some planned on working, some unsure and the majority found a college they fell in love with. Many planned on going to state colleges, while others wanted to get out of our state as fast as possible. Therefore, they would need to stay at a dorm at the college they chose to attend. Most were fine with that idea. I, on the other hand, had a different plan in mind.

I was not completely opposed to the idea of dorm life. I took tours of my college and got to see the inside of a few dorms, and I remember thinking to myself, "Well, this wouldn't be too bad." I would make many connections with the people around me, attend many campus activities since I would be right there, and I would get to leave college saying, "I had the experience of living in a dorm."

However, after much speculation, I decided differently. And I came to realize that was okay.

I have only a 30 minute drive from my college campus; an easy commute on a daily basis. Traffic has never been horrible, and I have not been in an accident (knock on wood) when the school decided to stay open in a snow storm. If I were to compare the price of living in a dorm to the price of gas I spend every year driving to school, you could say that gas would definitely be the cheaper route to take. Also, I was not a huge fan of sharing a room in an unfamiliar place with a stranger. But hey, that's just me.

However, in the beginning of my college years, I remember seeing the connections made between all these students that stayed in dorms. Everyone seemed to know everyone somehow, or so it seemed. If the professor asked the class who was a commuter, the very few who raised their hands would get looked at by their fellow classmates who lived in dorms. In the beginning, I felt as if the group of commuters was an outside group to the rest of the community that seemed to know each other so well. As if it was some sort of bad thing that we decided to drive to school everyday rather than live there. Again, as time went on, I came to realize that was okay.

College is meant to be an experience one will never forget, and for most, it definitely is. I have talked with other commuters who regret not attending more campus activities, feeling as if they did not experience college to its fullest potential. I have also talked to some students who stayed in dorms who say the exact same thing.

Do I regret not staying in a dorm? No.

Do I feel as though I could have experienced more in my college career? Absolutely. There will always be that one trip I did not go on, or that one dance I did not go to, or that one opportunity to meet new people that I decided to not take part in.

Do I have any regrets about any of that? Absolutely not.

I can almost guarantee that at my college graduation, everyone will leave with a new perspective on life. Because that is exactly what college is meant to do. It should not matter whether or not you lived on campus; it should not matter whether you had a job or whether you didn't. All that matters, and all that you have to ask yourself at the end of your college career is, "Did I learn, Did I grow, and was I shaped into a new being?"

Everyone has different preferences, everyone acts differently in social settings, and everyone has different comfort zones, whether that be in a dorm or not.

And as time went on, I came to realize that was okay.