It was a dreary, rainy day in Glassboro, New Jersey, a place less than 30 minutes from my hometown in South Jersey. It was cold. It was early in the morning. I had not dressed appropriately for the bipolar New Jersey weather, and I had no interest in going to a college so close to home. Basically, this visit was doomed from the start. Allow me to rewind to give you a back story.

I had never imagined staying close to home for college. I dreamed of going as far as the west coast, but I'd settle for upstate Pennsylvania. I don't have a bad home life, and I'm super close with my parents, but I hated the idea of being in New Jersey for the rest of my life. I had my heart set on a few colleges, none of which were in the state, but my parents wanted me to give in-state schools a chance, so I decided to visit Rowan.

If you're a South Jersey native, you probably know of 10 people at least who attend Rowan. At my high school alone as many as 20 people a year end up at Rowan, whether they go there initially or transfer in. I had no desire to see my high school classmates after graduation, and I let this taint my entire perception of the school.

As my tour went on, the rain and clouds cleared, and the sun started to shine through. My tour guide took a liking to me and told me all about her personal experience at Rowan. She had been in the same place as I was, no desire to spend another four years with people from high school. But what she also told me was that she grew to love the school regardless of it being close to home. After hearing this story, I began to look at Rowan in a different light.

I realized that the school was developing and growing so fast that when I graduated, it would be held in a higher regard than it already was. It was in New Jersey, which meant in-state tuition (gotta plan for the future, ya know). I would be close to home, in case I ever needed my parents for anything. And to be honest, I'm so close with my parents I want to be able to see them. And although I would see a lot of people from high school, I would have a little bit of home with me in the midst of all of the changes that come with college.

So I chose Rowan University, not because it was the glamorous and expensive choice, or because it was in a big city, or because it was love at first sight. I chose Rowan because it wasn't love at first sight, but it became the place that I can't wait to get to and never want to leave.