I woke up last Monday morning in my parents’ house at around 9 am, after showering I was able to chat with my Dad and take my dog for a walk, before warming my car and driving back to campus for my 11:30 class.
My apartment is a mere 13 miles from my Lafayette apartment. For prom in 11th grade my friends and I bowled in the Union basement, the bowling sneakers peaking out from under our backless dresses.
I represent a decided minority of college students who chose to pursue their secondary education in their own backyards (literally in the case of kids from West Lafayette High School). In this article, I will weigh the experience of the local college student against while maintaining an independent and autonomous life as a future adult.
First and foremost, the local student can be as grateful for their parents as the student who only sees them as often as summer and winter break. To say the least of being able to see their pets, as they age after college begins. During my own freshman year, I carefully selected my dates to go back home only every other weekend. I was very limiting.
Of course, the small quirks like doing laundry at home saves money over time, and the food in the fridge saves an apartment owner from buying a meal. To add, I was even able to have my own mom to bring me cough syrup when I had my first in-college fever as I was a sophomore dying in my dorm room.
The ability to have to have one's family near may seem invaluable not only to students who live in other states or across the world but also to students who may live as close as Indianapolis or Chicago. I would make a bold wager that the majority of students would prefer to have their dad on line one in case their car battery needed to be jumped at the grocery store. However, I’d like to analyze that situation from a different angle, what would this situation have brought to someone whose family was not at their beck and call like mine is?
Since this happened to me, I would have needed to use my resources and ask someone to help or contact a non-emergency number to drive out to assist me. When I had a fever and had my mom bring me medicine, I could have forced myself to reach out to my college friends or the girls in my dorm to lend a hand.
Alternatively, I could have been proactive and bought the drugs before I needed them. These situations, while uncomfortable, would have been important to not only establish independence but also build confidence in myself.
This is ultimately the virtue and detriment of going to school in an area you are familiar with. After my first semester as a freshman, I knew going home every weekend was tempting and blissful to do, but ultimately a little bit of homesickness is good for the soul and needing to construct a social network and routine from scratch in a new place can be unfathomably beneficial. I knew to resist this temptation despite all of the benefits mentioned above.
Finally, any student near or far may find that going home can usually result in a generally unproductive weekend. Home represents comfort, ease, and predictability, which is great when you want to unwind, not so great if you're trying to grind on school, work, applications, etc. The point of college is to break this mold and become a better person in the process. Work now, go home later.