As a highschool student I had always been on top of everything when it came to homework. Coming into freshman year of college I truly felt like for the first time ever I no longer had the same control over everything. From assignments, social life, self care and basically every other aspect of my life it was a lot to say the least. I remember looking back during freshman year and thinking to myself “ I don’t know if I can do this”. I would always think to myself if I didn’t have to compromise the time to get up early get ready, get to the bus on time and spend the time getting to school,life would be much simpler. The more I thought about it the more I got to realizing that living at home has such amazing elements and terrible ones as well.
The Pros
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You get to see your family. I know this might not seem important when you think about it from the perspective that college is the time to truly work on your career. Although focusing on developing your future and career are important college is stressful with a capital S! Being around those you love and are comfortable with it allows you to take a step back and realize grades are not everything in the world. It takes a long time to adjust to everything that college involves, and being around your family allows you to always put your priorities in place with a much more clear mind.
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When the stress truly gets to you and you have those meltdowns and come home exhausted, you get to talk to those who know you, know your potential and most of all, have wisdom over you. I remember I came home once so overwhelmed by everything that was going on during school that I couldn’t stop overthinking and crying. My mom came in and she put things into perspective for me. She told me things take time, nothing comes easy and, that everything I was stressing about was irrelevant because I was only a freshman. Having her in those moments allowed me to have more control over the level of stress experience.
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I know this is probably the last thing any college student wants to hear but commuting genuinely allows you to have the skill of time management under your belt. For the amount of work that has to be done, commuting allowed me to schedule everything properly. Not only was I starting to become on top of my homework, I was able to schedule time for myself now and then and most importantly schedule time for a social life!
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Lastly and most importantly definitely the fact that there is always delicious and free food at home :)
The Cons
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The worst aspect about not living close to school is all the activities and opportunities that we as students miss out on. From internships, school activities and overall exploration of random places.
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For someone who tends to want to be more independent and loves having control over, basically, everything. At this time I find it hard to develop that aspect of my personality due to the fact that I am still living at home.
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The time consumption and exhaustion that comes with commuting is dreadful. There is nothing worse than being interrupted mid productivity, mid conversations and having to run to catch the last train or last bus. Once I’m being productive at school having to switch my mentality to commuting is the absolute worst. Coming home after a long day of classes and work and having to do more work in an environment that goes against productivity is something that I always, and will always, struggle with.
As a college student, I have never had so many amazing friends, so many memorable events and a time in my life where I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen the next da. But to be honest, that is the beauty of college, the spontaneity of everything. I can’t believe it is almost 2 years since I first started. It goes by so fast.
So make sure no matter what your living situations are to allow it to inspire you and make your experiences that much more treasurable. Even though commuting is tough at times, I have realized that everything that went into these last few years has been absolute bliss.