“Where are you from?”
“Idaho,” I said with a smile on my face.
“Oh, wow, that’s far away.”
This pretty much sums up the small talk conversations I have had since my first year at Ithaca College. To state the obvious, yes, it’s far. More specifically, it’s 2,400 miles, or a 34-hour car ride, or two flights away. I exclusively became known as the “Idaho girl,” probably because of the many “Sarahs” in the world or the few Idahoans in upstate New York.
I definitely didn’t want a state to define my personality. What even is an “Idaho girl”? I grew up surrounded by Idaho girls, and somehow, I must conglomerate every personality trait into one identity so that I can be the best representative of an Idaho girl. I don’t know if the state of Idaho would be happy that I’ve been chosen to represent them.
When it came time in my senior year of high school to decide where I wanted to go, honestly, all I knew was I wanted to get as far away as possible. I had lived in the same place, the same house, and had been around the same people for my entire life. It was time for a change. A big change.
“Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
I loved to brag about where I was going. It probably got annoying. Most of my Idahoan classmates believed I would be living in New York City when I told them I would be going to school in New York. I chose not to correct them. I was an Idaho girl in New York and then a “New York girl” in Idaho.
Aside from the identity crisis, I learned so much being away from home just in my first year alone.I learned how to go to the doctor without my mom, how to get a new debit card when my account got hacked, and how to travel by myself.Most importantly, and I’m sure this is generic to say, I found myself.
I rediscovered what my likes and dislikes were outside of my friends and family. Moving across the country was the push I needed to discover myself!
When people ask what made me choose Ithaca College, I simply say, “I came to Ithaca College for the opportunities, the hands-on experience.” By day one, I wanted a byline and a reporter’s notebook in my hand…little did I know I would eventually want a camera as well. I felt the Park School of Communications would give me that opportunity, unlike any other place in the world.
I didn’t come to mess around. And I dove in headfirst. I think I was trying to prove to myself that moving away was worth it. I am so thankful that I had something to prove. In my first year of college, I was a staff writer for The Ithacan, Ithaca College’s Independent Student Newspaper. I wrote my first article before I even started to get homesick.
It became a habit of mine to send my articles to my family back home. Even though local Ithaca news was probably the farthest from their minds, they were so proud to see I was making a name for myself so far away from home.
In my sophomore year, I discovered my love of visual journalism and started performing various roles for the news divisions of ICTV here at Ithaca College; one of the many things that I love about Ithaca College, you can be like Barbie in a way. You can be whatever you want to be, and if you put in the effort, you can get involved with anything you want on your campus, regardless of your major.
Moving so far away, I always get asked how I handle homesickness. Not only do I now live in the complete opposite cardinal direction, but the trees, the animals, and the weather are all different. Finding familiarities of home is near impossible. Where does one get a good potato with fry sauce in Ithaca?
I relied heavily on care packages, pictures, trinkets, and country music to remind me of home. Before coming to Ithaca, I hated country music; I refused to listen to it. But the first time a country song came on the radio while I was in college, I felt a strong pull to home. Decorating my dorm with cowboy-themed novelties and pictures of cowboy boots brought me right back to the Wild West.
If you were to ask if I would have made a different choice or if I regret living so far away from home, I wouldn’t even have to think for a second about what my answer would be. I have made amazing friends and amazing memories here. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love that I have brought a little part of Idaho to Ithaca, New York.