A part of the price tag of college includes the downsized lifestyle. Whether you call it the "college experience" or "dorm living," I call it depressing. In my article published by Odyssey a couple of weeks ago, "7 Things I Say to People When They Ask Me, 'Why Are You Going To A Community College?'" one of my favorite points is to forget about dorm life. I went to Boy's State in 2015 and lived on a college campus for a week. It was the most miserable way of life I ever lived and I spent three nights in a hostile in Boston for the love of the queen's crown. It was then, and after my SAT scores made me sad, that I knew I was going to a commuter college after high school - and it's all alright.

I Get the Whole Town to Myself

When 80% of everyone you saw every day for as many as 15 years of your life suddenly move out of the region, it's a wonderful feeling. Of course, there's a handful of people I do miss, but you can't get 200 people to love each other after 15 years - just look at the Senate! It's nice that there's no more drama and grudges between people. I don't have to find out on Twitter that A cheated on B for C and D found out because E lives right next door to F who's C's best friend. I can go to local parks and beaches without being bothered by hometown hood-rats, and I control who I do and don't want to keep in contact with. To me, my hometown is so much quieter and peaceful, it's the best college town I could've asked for.

Here's to a Healthier Lifestyle

In my second or third morning at Boy's State I thought I wasn't going to be able to make it the rest of the week. Fortunately, I made it through but dear Fieri I woke up every morning feeling nauseous. First off, I'm a bit of a gourmand, fond of good eating. I can handle fast-food or genetically modified organisms on occasion, but for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all in between? I need to eat food that I know went from the grocery store or farmer's market straight to my table. Do you know why the "freshman 15" is a thing? It's because in college most of your meats, fish, and veggies are straight out of a factory probably not in America and drinking water from a sewer. Of course, though, we can import "lettuce and tomato" but we can't import prescription drugs from Canada? In any event, GMOs are far cheaper than organic or natural products, which explains why many college students resort to pizza, donuts, and soda as a part of meals because it's high in calories and fits in any budget. I love this stuff as much as any person, but for it to be my diet for the next eight months, no thank-you.

I can't speak from the female perspective, but guys are disgusting. For a week I slept in a room half the size of my bedroom at home, and I had to share it with another human being! All in all, I probably only had three square feet of open space to myself. Luckily this guy wasn't a farm animal but I can imagine how other people must be like. You never know, you'll wake up at 2:30 A.M. and there's your roommate doing his/her term paper or he/she is making disturbing noises while sleeping; even worse, he/she creepily talks in their sleep, or you'll wake up and find him/her right on top of you in bed breathing in your face. People are strange, people.

To top it off, a lot of this happens in a dorm built as early as 1700, and they probably haven't been cleaned since. When someone says, "hey, sleep in the bed George Washington slept in" please don't take the offer, the blood stains are probably Washington's too. Hopefully, you don't get a disease because you can't sue a man that's been dead for 200 years, but it would be cool to say, "you know what? George Washington gave me this disease." I know my home, I should know if there's mold in it or not. And if there is, hopefully, I don't have to wait a few months, lose more years on my lifespan, just to get something done about it.

To a large population of young people, the college experience fits them well, and if anything I envy that. That doesn't mean, however, that anyone should be ashamed for staying at home and commuting. If anything, with the money I'm saving, when the people who I broke out into a dance when they left come back for breaks, I can afford my own trips outside of town - away from everyone.