Being an out-state college student is tough. During the first year of college will be the hardest year because you are transitioning to becoming INDEPENDENT. Something you have wanted since you started high school. But going to college as an instate student is one thing, going to college as an out-state student is another. Here ten reasons why being an out-state student is tough.
1. Believe it or not being you will miss your family. Your family is your rock, you have always depend on your family for everything. Whether is was mom doing your laundry, dad giving you money to spend when you hang out with your friends. �Your parents cooking every meal. Having groceries at all times in your kitchen. Your little sibling bugging the crap out of you. These are things you will miss more then you know it when you go to college out of state.
2. Your own bed and own room. Your bed is considered a luxury because it is nothing compared to the bed you have to sleep on in your college dorm. That first week sleeping on your bed in your dorm will make you think on how you took your own bed at home for granted. Your bed is like a fluffy cloud compared to your bed in your college dorm which is hard as a rock. You may get lucky and get your own room but if you don't you have to deal with a roommate. A total stranger that you may become bff's with or enemies. You may have one roommate, two or even three. And these are the people you will see 24/7. So if you have to share your room you will end up missing your personal space.
3. Food. Eating food at home is obviously totally different compared to the food you will get in college. Home cooked meals is something you will miss the most. It is nothing compared to ramen, and those awful meal plans. Unless you have access to a kitchen 24/7 and you can cook then you probably won't miss home cooked meals as much except for the fact that you have to do all your own cooking.
4. Your friends that you had in high school. You may keep in touch with those friends when you move out of state. You may not. But you always will look forward when you go home for break to visit everyone and you get to see all your friends again that have been there for you through thick and thin.
5. Speaking of going home. You will not have the opportunity to go home whenever you feel like it and you may experience your roommates going home frequently if they are in state students and getting to see their families all the time. It will make you feel even more home sick then you already are because you may not have the money to book a flight ticket home for just one weekend and then not being able to see your family the following weekend. It may be months before you can go see them again.
6. When you go home for break, and you see your family again it will feel like years. Your siblings will have grown up a lot since you left them at the beginning of the semester. But you are just excited to be home after so long of not seeing everyone and you may or may not get emotional and cry. But as soon as it comes to the time for you to leave again it will feel like you were only home for a few days when it could of been a week or month. And leaving them every time you have to go back to school when break is over will become harder every time.
7. Getting sick. Getting sick in college means you have to take care of yourself, and you have to take yourself to the doctor because your parents won't be able to come up and help you or bring you chicken noodle soup or even medicine to help you get better. You just have to struggle on your own and hope that you either get better or don't die.
8. Tuition. I can not emphasize how much the difference between instate and out-state tuition really is. And instate students don't realize how lucky they are when it comes to paying tuition because your tuition may be double or triple the cost of instate tuition.
9. Starting over. The benefit of moving far away is that you get to start over and no one will know you. So you get a fresh start to meeting new people who don't know your past at all. An opportunity to make new friends and get involved in college organizations if you didn't involve yourself in high school with those clubs and organizations.
10. Becoming a stronger person. Overall being an out-state college student will make you a stronger person because your parents won't be coming up every weekend or every other weekend to take you home for the weekend but you do get to see them through video calls and it makes you excited that you get to count down the days until you will finally be able to go home. But last not lease you know you will survive being an out-state college student no matter what life throws at you.