The first time I toured a college campus was in eighth grade with my older brother, who was a junior in high school at the time. We visited schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and it helped me discover what I desired in a school at a younger age, before most kids even consider college.

My brother chose to attend college in Cincinnati, Ohio, 900 miles away from our hometown in Massachusetts. Watching him experience college so far away gave me a basis for the distance from home I wanted to be.

He constantly had to coordinate and book flights and get rides to and from the airport, and I decided I did not want to go to school so far away that I had to fly there. Ideally, I wanted to be within four hours from home.

Fast forward to senior year of high school, when I committed to Ithaca College. Ithaca is 350 miles from my home, and I did achieve choosing a school that I can drive to and from, although I still do fly home on occasion. It is much farther from home than I pictured myself going, but it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

My graduating class had 178 students in it, and only 11 of them ventured outside of New England for college, one of them being me. Choosing to go to school far away from home may have not always been my plan, but I decided it was my best choice academically and personally.

Not only did I choose to attend Ithaca College for the amazing communications program, the campus, and the student body, but I decided that college was my opportunity to experience a new part of the country. As I considered where I see myself spending my life after college, I knew that this could be one of few opportunities I may have to live somewhere besides Massachusetts.

Boston is an excellent city for the career in communications that I hope to have, and family is very important to me, so I will most likely end up living back in Massachusetts following college graduation. I wanted to take my four years at college and live in a new state while I had the chance.

Although there are times when I am jealous of those who go to school closer to home, I still do not regret my decision to attend college outside of New England. I am able to live in beautiful upstate New York and expose myself to a new region and all it has to offer.

Many argue that those who move far away for college are running from their hometown or their previous life, but I believe that my roots have given me the courage to move away and the strength to be independent in an unfamiliar setting. I know that my hometown will always be there, but I may not get the chance to live away from Massachusetts the way I am now.