Can’t go home every weekend

A big part of going to school 1000 miles away is sacrificing the ability to go home as often as you may like. Sometimes your friends go home to spend the weekend with their family or your roommate drives home to do their laundry, All the while you are stuck on campus… unless you live in Chicago… then your driving needs are set for life.

It’s hard to have a car

Even if you have a car at home, it may be difficult to drag it back and forth across the country. Not only does it require you to make that dreaded road trip, but it adds a lot of usage on your car. But hey, at least that super rich girl at school’s sweet sixteen present won’t go to waste!

Your friends from home won’t visit you

No matter how good of friends you are, let’s face it, nobody is spending a couple hundred dollars to fly across the country for the weekend just for you and if they are then your friends need to chill.

Everybody in high school thought you were crazy

There is a certain look everybody gave you in high school when you told them what College you’re going to. That look usually consists of a raised eyebrow or a dropped jaw. Sometimes it was because they didn’t recognize your school. Sometimes they were confused at why you wanted to go so far away. Most of the time it was a mixture of both and the passive aggressive response of “out of state tuition is getting high nowadays.” Thanks, Aunt Peggy I know I’ll be broke forever.

Storage units

Wait, did you really think I was going to haul everything in my dorm room back home over the summer? Haha.

Weather is a big change

Adjusting to different weathers is hard for a lot of out of state students. You spend most of your life living in the same climate that you consider normal, and then suddenly you have to spend four years experiencing somebody else’s normal. Winter, for example, should not be anyone’s normal.

Your knowledge of the state your school is in is almost non-existent

Whether it’s the name of cities or the name of local restaurants, you probably find it hard to stay in the loop with your friends who are from the area. What is a Graeter’s?

People don’t know much about your home state

Similar to how you don’t know much about the state you are in, most people don’t know a lot about where you’re from. Most of what they know is based on stereotypes and common knowledge. Then in come the stupid questions about your state like “Do you have any water in California?”

You sometimes compete with your other out of state friends

“I live farther than you!” “My state is cooler than yours!” “It takes me longer to get home than you!” Sometimes you just can’t help but to bond with your out of state friends in the form of competition using your respective states. “What’s better Portillo’s or Whataburger?” Is that even a question?