Choosing where you'll attend college is one of the biggest decisions of your life. Maybe you're the type that knows they need to be close to home, or maybe you're the type that couldn't wait to get out and move far away. For those who fall under the latter category, there are certain challenges and surprises that make living life away from home incredibly different from the lives of your friends attending colleges close to home.

When you do make it home, everything feels so different.

Your visits are few and far between, so when you return it feels as if so much has changed. The weather, for one, and the sights. Buildings get torn down, shopping centers change their signs, and a new Dunkin Donuts pops up down the street. All these changes may seem small and subtle, but it can make you feel like you've missed so many milestones in your hometown.

You miss out on visiting your friends that go to school close to each other.

For you, it's a plane ride if you want to visit one of your friends as opposed to an hour long drive. This can be a little disheartening when you see your friends all hanging out together at one of their colleges while you're miles away.

While your other friends can go home for the weekend, you have to wait for holidays or extended breaks.

You're constantly tapping through snap stories of people that are home for the weekend with their family. While you might be jealous they get to see their pets and get a home cooked meal, you know that going home for a weekend, just because, isn't really an option for you. You have to wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas to go home, and you have to get your flights in advance so the price doesn't climb insanely high.

You'll end up losing touch with some of your other friends.

Those who are really important to you will always stay in you life if you make an effort to keep in touch with them. However, there are some people from high school that you just won't remain close with. This inevitably happens when you aren't home that often because you aren't actively hanging out and spending time with them like other people are. Although this can be sad, you have to remember that you've also made so many new, great friends at school.

Even though you live miles from home, you wouldn't trade your circumstances for anything. You live in a new place and have experienced a new culture/area, which is a unique experience that others may not get the chance to have. Even though you miss your friends from home, you can remain close to them while branching out and meeting new people at your own school. You get the best of both worlds.