When I was in high school and was looking at colleges to attend, I felt as if it was frowned upon to go to the University of Delaware. I would always hear people make side comments about how Newark was “the thirteenth grade.” I would hear things like “they’re still stuck in high school,” or “they’ll never leave home.” The constant comments and snide remarks were always there in the back of my head when I was making my decision to apply to schools. I so badly didn’t want people to think of me like that, that I refused to even visit Delaware. Well a year later, after attending a school that was not right for me, I decided to transfer back home.

Now I’m known as a “Townie.” So yes, I’m from Delaware and go to UD. But guess what. All those statements that strayed me away from looking at UD in the first place could not be further from the truth. I love Delaware and not just because it is home.

I love Delaware because the campus is beautiful year round. From the multi-colored leaves painting the sidewalks in the fall to the freshly fallen snow covering the trees in the winter to the students crowding the green when the weather is finally warm again in the spring.

I love Delaware because it offers a little bit of everything for anyone. You can join a sport’s club team or if you just want to play for fun, you can sign up for intramurals. You can meet more people pursuing your career interest, by joining the PA Club or a business fraternity. If you want to volunteer, you can sign up to be a part of service trips or join a sorority to participate in philanthropic events. And if you like wine, you can even join the wine tasting club! Delaware has something for everyone, and if it doesn’t have what you want, you can easily start it.

I love Delaware because I’ve had the opportunity to be taught by inspiring and knowledgeable professors who make dealing with all the stress worth it and who have given me the hope that not all professors are out to get us.

I love Delaware because Main Street makes bar-hopping easy. And I can have any kind of food whenever I want.

I love Delaware because it makes me proud that I am a blue hen and that this is where I am from.

So for those who say we are “still stuck in high school,” we still talk and hang out with our friends from high school because they are some of our best friends. People that have stuck with us through the good and bad. People that we never want to live without, regardless if we met them freshman year in math class. But at Delaware, we’ve also become best friends with people from different states on the east coast like Connecticut and Massachusetts, all the way out to California on the west coast. We’ve become close friends with people who live just up in Pennsylvania and right over in New Jersey. And we have even become friends with more people from Delaware whom we would have never imagined we’d become friends with “in high school.”

For those of you who say we “will never leave home,” ask our parents how many times they see us during the school year. Or the amount of times they’ve called wondering how we live only twenty minutes away and somehow they still never see us. We love the state of a Delaware and even though we have met some people who didn’t even know it is a state, we are proud to be Delawareans. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever leave. If an awesome opportunity arises, we will take it. Just like how we jump at the opportunity to study abroad and go on service trips. Some of us have been to places like Australia, Peru, Spain, Germany, and South Africa. Some of us have studied abroad for a couple of weeks, while some of us have left the states for months! Just because we chose to go to the college in our small state, does not mean we will never leave.

For those Delawareans that decided not to attend UD, we hope you love your college as much as we do and that it has become your second home. We hope you know we think it is awesome you went away for school, but we also hope you don’t judge our decisions to stay here. And despite however far you left for school, we hope you know Delaware will always be your home.

And for those out there still making negative comments about us going to a school that “we mine as well commute to,” stop. Not because we care about your trivial opinions, but so others don’t overlook what an amazing school their home state has to offer.

Yes, we are from Delaware and we go to UD. We are “Townies” and we are proud.