I admit: living at home isn’t always perfect.

Traveling an hour every day just to get to and from school does bite into the time that I could potentially spend studying. Yes, it sometimes stinks when clubs have meetings starting at night or over the weekend. Yes, it sometimes complicates group projects when I say I would rather not go downtown to campus when I don’t have to. Yes, there are times when I sit and dream about having my own place and making my own rules.

I wouldn’t have it any other way though.

I’m not saying that commuting is for everyone. If you live on campus close to home, I’m not telling you to move back in with your parents and find some method of transportation to get to campus every day. Driving is expensive in gas and parking passes, carpooling can be a hassle and public transportation is … public transportation.

With that being said, it shouldn’t be expected that living on campus is for everyone either.

I’ll admit, a big reason why I decided to live at home rather than on campus was because of finances. I live only 20 minutes away from campus, and I usually am able to carpool with either my dad or one of my friends. However, the more I’ve lived at home, the more I’ve realized that there is so much to commuting that people don’t even take into consideration.

I like having my own room so I can really have some time away from people. I enjoy having home-cooked meals and bringing friends who live on campus home so they can have a home-cooked meal and a dog to play with. I like being able to cuddle my cat when I need to and talk to my mom for hours on end. I like going to school in the city, but I would much rather take a walk throughout the suburbs.

I’m not missing out on anything by living at home. I don’t just drive in, go to class and go home to do homework. I’ve joined clubs. I stay to eat lunch and study.

I found a group of friends in the Commuters’ Lounge right from the beginning of my freshman year.

They’re the people that I go to when I have a problem. They study and/or watch Netflix for hours with me. They come with me to clubs because I’m too nervous to go by myself. Together, we have all gone to the zoo, the museum, the trampoline park, haunted houses, parks, sporting events, bowling and farther downtown just to grab a quick bite to eat that isn’t on-campus food.

It’s important to find friends who aren’t in your major. The resources I have allow me to realize how diverse my campus is and how much I love the people that surround me.

I don’t see myself ever really living on campus, and that’s OK. I also do not see myself living with my parents my whole life. I am experiencing college a little bit differently from everyone else, and that’s okay because we all experience college differently from everyone else.