If you’re like most high school seniors or college sophomores at a junior college, your decision on where to go to school next won’t be easy. On one hand you can stay at the university close to home and go to school with all your friends, but on the other, you can go somewhere out-of-state where you know no one and everything is new.

I’ll admit, I’m a little biased, but if I had to do it all over again I would still choose to go to college out-of-state. For an athlete, this decision matters a little bit more because it’s one thing to go a couple states over but to go all the way across the country like I did, makes it harder for parents to come to games.

Either way, athlete or not, I would recommend going to college out-of-state because of the new experiences you're going to have. I was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada (big time city girl) and before I knew it, I was shipped off to the tiniest of towns in the south to go play ball. Talk about culture shock. It took me a while to understand what people were saying because I had never been around anyone with such a strong accent. The people of southern Louisiana have a special dialect that makes it difficult for foreigners to understand right off the bat. But by the end of the semester I was saying things like “y’all” and “come see.”

Where I go to school has definitely shaped my college experience so far. This past Friday was Crawfish Day at Nicholls State University. Where else in the country do campuses hold events for a mudbug? Before my freshman year I had never had crawfish and to be honest I didn't know people ate that sort of stuff. If I didn't go to school out-of-state I probably would've gone a long long time or probably even my whole life without ever eating crawfish. While I still can’t peel crawfish like a true Cajun, I try my best and that’s all that matters.

If you go to college in-state you’ll never know what it’s like to live in the dorms and eat terrible cafeteria food. While the latter may turn you off from living on campus, it was an experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world. I only had to live in the dorms my freshman year, but even then, I find myself reminiscing all the good times and good friends I made there. If I had to give a statistic I would say that you meet about 70 percent of your friends there. I lived on the same floor as all of my teammates so it was nice being so close to them and always having someone to hangout with. It was especially nice knowing that if I overslept I would have them to wake me up for 6 a.m. weights, which they had to do several times (thanks guys).

People always talk about college being the best years of their lives and it’s the truest statement one can ever say. In college you take classes that apply to your major and also those that you’ll never use in life but are a major/minor requirement. The real learning, however, takes place outside those four classroom walls. You learn about the person you are and want to be. You realize it’s okay that the high school friends that swore would be there forever, are no longer in your life. You learn how to get by on $12 and Top Ramen. You learn how to manage your time between a sport, schoolwork, a social life, and that urban legend called sleep.

While going to college in-state won’t hinder your growth as a person, it just won’t be the same as going to college out-of-state. There is beauty in the struggle. How bad will your parents really let you struggle while living under their roof? Chances are, none. You’ll come home, do laundry on a washing machine that cost you nothing with detergent that your mom bought and do homework in a quiet setting. You’ll eat dinner that your dad cooked (that you didn't have to pay for) and watch tv on cable that once again you didn't have to pay for. It’ll be like high school all over again.

My intentions aren’t to bring down those to that chose to go to college in-state. My intentions are only to give some of the awesome benefits of going to college out-of-state. All I’m saying is that if I would have chosen to go to my local university I wouldn’t have met all of my amazing teammates that have grown to become my second family. I wouldn’t have experienced crawfish and other Louisiana traditions. I wouldn’t have accomplished half of my crazy adventures with my friends because of this little thing called curfew. I wouldn’t have known anything outside of my little Las Vegas bubble.

If you're someone that’s on the fence about whether or not to go to college out-of-state, I would say go. Take a leap of faith and jump. We only grow when we step outside our comfort zones. If it doesn't work out, I hear we have these little things called cars and planes and devices that can give us directions on how to get back home.