To Go Far or Not to Go Far: The Eternal College Question
By: Avery Didden
As a junior in high school, you sit down and write a list of colleges you plan on applying to. One of the main criteria you have to decide on before you even start that list is: How far are you willing to travel for school? Do you want a school that’s right around the corner from your childhood home so you can stop and drop off your laundry, or do you want to branch out on your own and go as far away as possible?
Some people may frown on the decision to stay close to home. “College is the time to ~find out who you are~,” they’ll say with a condescending nod. They’ll lecture you about the necessity of becoming an individual in college, asserting that you should be willing to travel far away to find your own way in the world. However, what these people fail to acknowledge is the whole host of factors that influence this decision: cost of travel, family members’ health, etc.
That’s why the question is slightly overrated.
Yes, it matters how far you are willing to travel for college in terms of what works best for you and your family logistically. However, the distance you are from home should not impact your ability to become an individual. That is where I think most outlooks on this question are flawed.
As long as you approach college as an experience in which you are dedicated to learning who you are as an individual, it truly does not matter the distance you are from home. Now, if staying close to home makes you unable to become an individual (like if you’re stopping home every day to get your clothes folded or your questions answered), maybe travel farther away. But, if not, there is no reason why staying close to home should be frowned upon. If you focus on making college an individual experience, it doesn’t matter if your childhood house is 10 minutes away or 10 hours.
Overall, the decision should be about the school: the classes, the programs, the social life. It should be about creating a life for yourself as your own person. And, you should do it at the place that will allow you to foster and nurture that growth. More often than not, the answer to if a school allows you to do that is within the school itself not about whether you need a plane or a bike to get home.
I’m a plane ride away from home, but my best friend is a 40 minute drive. In freshman year, we both were home the same amount, each dedicated to our studies and our own lives. We’re living examples of the overrated quality of this question.
It’s time we learned to focus on the questions that matter not the ones we are used to asking.