Townie (n.): a resident in a college town, rather than a student [as defined by an online dictionary]
This definition, however, has taken on an alternative meaning on Notre Dame’s campus. Rather than describing someone who merely lives in the college town (if you can even call South Bend a college town??), the term seems to now describe the student population characterized by the people who attend the university but also grew up within ten minutes from campus. In my personal experience, being called a “Townie” comes with both its pros and cons; since only a rare group of people ever get the privilege of being able to say they went to preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, and college all in the same town, I’d like to take this opportunity to lay out just exactly it means to wear such a renowned title.
Top 5 things unique to being a Townie (I’m going to capitalize the term to give it the full respect it well deserves):
1. We are just as close, if not closer, to home than we were in commuting to/from high school or even middle school.
Nope, college is not some giant “going away” experience for us. For many of us lucky Townies, growing up in South Bend/Granger, Indiana meant that we have always bled Notre Dame blue and gold—for goodness sake, the campus is in our own backyard, how could we not? And of course we love thee Notre Dame, BUT this also means we get a whole lot of, “So is it weird for you? You know, living five minutes from your house? Doesn’t that seem odd… isn’t it the opposite of what the college adventure is supposed to be?” Well yeah, but sorry, we aren’t that sorry—we’ve had the blessing and pleasure of growing up in the same city as the greatest university in the world. I don’t know about you, but having a mere four years to spend near/on campus doesn’t seem like enough; most of us Townies will have the honor of experiencing 15+ years around Notre Dame. Not too shabby, huh?
Nope, we are NOT going on an adventure for college.
2. We have easy access to our parents, aka groceries (FRESH FRUIT!) and home-cooked meals.
While I’m decently sure this one speaks for itself, Townies have immediate access to their family. This rocks on many levels, but the most rewarding of all is the ability we have to eat some GOOD FOOD (groceries AND home-cooked meals)—because sometimes, the canned peaches and community peanut butter bowls from NDH just don’t cut it. We Townies (shout out to our oh-so-loving and generous parents) have the means of casually riding along with our families to the grocery store every now and then—don’t get me wrong, the HuddleMart will always have a special place in my heart, but there are just some things you need from a grocery store outside of the Notre Dame bubble. Not to mention, when we get a craving or two for something straight out of mom’s kitchen, there’s no 5-hour bus ride or 3-hour plane ride stopping us from getting it—the ten minute car ride is the only thing between us and our favorite meals.
We all love food, especially when it comes from home.
3. We aren’t shocked when Notre Dame wakes up suddenly one morning with 3+ feet of snow.
That’s right, we are 100% used to looking out the window first thing on an early January morning and seeing what looks to be Antarctica 2.0. What’s even more is the fact that we know better than to get our hopes up on having classes cancelled—come on, it took a wind-chill of negative thirty to finally have classes cancelled in high school for us. We’re practically Eskimos. And on the other hand, we know that if South Bend has one of those extremely exceptionally nice days, where the sun is shining and there isn’t a single cloud in the sky, that it’s too good to be true—we know with asbolute certainty this means the weather the following day will be chilly and gray. We’ve come to learn that’s okay… the sun’s overrated anyways.
The cold never bothered us anyway?
4. We run into high school classmates and teachers while on campus.
This has happened to me more often than I should probably admit, actually. Townies aren’t caught off guard when we suddenly (and of course, I’m speaking from experience here) run into seven of our high school teachers all strolling around in LaFun. It’s always fun catching up with old teachers, but it’s when we begin running into students who still attend our respective high school that things start going downhill. I mean, can you really blame us for being even the slightest bit annoyed that we bump into high schoolers we know while studying in the library? This would be what we like to call a “Townie Prob”. For us, it’s like what they say… “High school never ends”!
Because running into underclassmen from high school puts us in one too many awkward situations.
5. We know the campus and the oh-so-thrilling city of South Bend, inside and out.
While this may seem like a twist off of the first point previously made about being a Townie, just roll with me here. Townies are some of the only people who know what there is even remotely to do in the Bend. In all seriousness though, Townies know all about the local unknown gems—yes, I’m thinking about Nick’s Patio here. By no means am I here to advertise for Nick’s Patio, but before you graduate from Notre Dame, you all had better go eat there at least once (their chocolate chip pancakes are superb; 10/10 would recommend)—Oh, and make sure you ask for the waitress with the caffeine molecule tattoo; she’s a Nick’s Patio icon. Truthfully speaking though, every friend group at Notre Dame needs a minimum of one Townie; we are the only people who will be able to come up with a place to go when you’re sitting in your dorm room asking, “What’s there to do in South Bend?” There isn’t even enough space in this article to lay out the things that Townies know you can do in South Bend/Granger, but maybe you’ll get lucky and we’ll generously share some of our hometown secrets.
Townies hold all of the secret knowledge about South Bend (shhhh!)
So sure, we may have grown up in a city that no one from out of town recognizes until we mention, “It’s where the University of Notre Dame is located”; but if you ask us, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Townie pride till we die.
The HCND application is now open! For more information contact Rebecca Rogalski at rebeccarogalski@hercampus.comor Katrina Linden at katrinalinden@hercampus.com
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