Every time I go home for breaks during the school year, I experience the same feeling of FOMO. Growing up in the south, it is "assumed" that everyone will attend a big SEC school, experience the same events their parents experienced in college, and bleed their school colors through and through. However, I do not have that experience like most of my friends do.

I attend a liberal arts, private university with a small student body and no football team. Coming from a family that screams "Go Big Orange" and bleeds red and black (never the wretched blue and white), I knew that this was going to be an extremely different college experience compared to most of my family, and especially my friends.

Most of my friends attend those big universities. They chant "Go Cocks," "Roll Tide," or even get amped up to "Enter Sandman" every time it comes on. A lot of them are members of sororities, avid football, and basketball attendees, and have lived in traditional-style dorms most of college.

I remember this lifestyle being my dream. In high school, I dreamed of attending one of these universities. The school where anyone knew name the moment you said it. The school that had hot Saturday game days spent with all of your friends tailgating for hours on end. The school that had huge Greek life.

The school that had the majority of in-state students or students primarily from the south. The school that gave you a 4x4 room your freshman year where you and your roommate would grow to become best friends. The school that EVERYONE wanted.

But, that is not what happened. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I know I am only into the beginning of my second year at High Point University, but I can easily say that I couldn't imagine attending any other school. It was not the university that fit my "perfect mold" of an ideal college experience. It did not have a huge student body. It did not have a large campus. It did not have Saturday game days. It was not what I dreamed of.

I would be lying if I said I never debated transferring. I would be lying if I said that there were moments when I questioned every single thing and every single person here. I would be lying if I said that I felt like I was missing out when I would hear my other friends' college stories every time I went home. Trust me, I have felt each of these things, sometimes more than once.

You might be thinking, "Well dang, if you feel so left out then why are you at HPU?"

High Point University is not like any other school. You hear it a million times when you are on this campus, but it's true. Most class sizes are under 20 students. The faculty knows you by name. The dorm rooms and other housing options are nicer than most hotels I've stayed at.

There are kiosks around campus with water bottles and snacks that students can grab on the way to class throughout the day. The five-star restaurant on campus is the equivalent of a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich meal swipe.

There are students and faculty driving around on purple and silver golf carts giving tours to potential students around campus every day. There are fountains. LOTS and lots of fountains.

All of this might sound extra. IT IS extra. This university is constantly compared to a "country club" or "Disney World" and all of these assumptions are pretty accurate. However, there is something deeper to the glitz and glamour of the outside that no other university can compare to on the inside.

At HPU, the number of opportunities are endless and the level of connections you can make is insane. For example, one of my current professors was the former director of NBC's Today Show for 22 years, director of numerous infamous sporting events and movies, winner of countless Emmy Awards, etc.

This man is my PROFESSOR. If someone this well-experienced in the industry can teach me for an hour every week, you can only imagine the connections you can make just walking down the street every day.

Connections like these are incomparable to other schools. Connections like these are the answer to making it out in the real world. 97 percent of HPU students land a job within their degree of study right after graduation, which is extremely impressive.

Although landing a career is one of every college student's main goals for post-grad, it is not the only positive from these kinds of connections. As a premier life skills university, you learn communication skills that help for not only your four years but for life.

If I did not attend this university, I would not understand the power of networking. I would not have made a LinkedIn profile before the end of my freshman year. I would not know how to properly pass the bread around a table during a business dinner.

I would not know how to properly set up a Panasonic camera for filming. I would not have met countless industry professionals from all over the country, both people that work here and people I have met from school-affiliated trips.

I would not know any of this. I would not have known any of these people. I would have never had these experiences.

This article was not written to persuade you to attend High Point University. It was not written to persuade you to not attend these big SEC and ACC schools. It was written to let you know that these big schools aren't everything.

It is OK to not be living the same college life like everyone else, it is OK to attend a private university, and it is certainly OK to attend where YOU want to go to school.

This is not to say I'll never have the negative thoughts and the "what if" questions about college again. In fact, I'll probably get annoyed with people when I go back home for Thanksgiving in just a few weeks. However, at the end of the day I know this university is the right one for me.

I might be missing out on ginormous lecture halls where the professor doesn't recognize you, frat parties with hundreds of sweaty drunk people, or not eating the crusty cafeteria food every day.

Yes, I might be missing out, but y'all go have fun spending hours upon hours at a football game on a hot Saturday where most of the people there won't even know what's going on the entire game. Trust me, it's tempting.

Attending High Point University doesn't make me any better than the average college student, nor does attending any other school. It is simply the better school for me, just like how these big schools are better for other people.

Although my thoughts and overthinking drive me mad, I think "choosing to be extraordinary" might be better than college football after all.