During junior year of high school, we are faced with some major decisions that will affect what we are going to do with the rest of our lives. Decisions about college specifically. Such as are we going and if so, where are we going. When I was faced with this decision, I knew without a doubt that I was going and I happened to have several major colleges within driving distance from my house. With my grades and ACT score, I probably would have been able to go to any of these with a pretty decent scholarship. I took a different route, however, and decided to look at schools farther away because the last thing I wanted to do was live at home. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, my home and my hometown but I knew that going to a school 45 minutes from my house was not the path I wanted to take.
In my mind, I knew that if I stayed at home, I would still feel like I was in high school. I would be with most of the same people I went to high school with; it would just be a larger environment. I would have the same friends with maybe one or two new additions. I would still live at home, go to the same places and have, for the most part, the same schedule. My "college experience" I felt would be similar to my high school experience which, to be honest, wasn't that great. Living away, I had to find a completely new set of friends. I knew absolutely no one at my school until I went for orientation so I really had to come out of my shell in order to survive. It is an experience I am thankful for because it changed me from being the person who would not talk to anyone new to being the girl who is not afraid to introduce myself to strangers and strike up a conversation.
If I were living at home I knew I would really not have to be responsible for myself. I would still have my parents there as a safety net if things went wrong. While yes, I still rely on my parents attending a college farther away from my home, in many aspects, I am responsible for myself. There is no parent to make sure I finish my assignments, work on my papers and actually go to my class at the crack of dawn. That is all on me, with the help of an amazing roommate, who was once a complete stranger, I might add. I have to take care of myself by making sure I schedule everything out so I can eat, do schoolwork, and make sure that I have laundry done. Because of this, I feel like I have an advantage that I have had to live on my own and be my own person. Everyone needs to get out there and be their own person, to be responsible for themselves. It might seem intimidating, but that is how life is supposed to be. Life is an adventure and you can't experience that adventure staying in your bubble at home.
