When living at home with your parents you have everything made for you. You don’t have to cook your own meals, you don’t have to do your own laundry, and you definitely don’t have to pay for it. All of these things are great but moving away for college was the best decision I’ve ever made.

First of all, we all hate having 11 p.m. curfews when ALL of our friends’ curfews aren’t until midnight. Well, in college you can come and go as you please. You want to go to Taco Bell at 2 AM? Go on, no one is stopping you. You want to go to the library to do homework? Cool, go ahead. You want to go out with your friends and then come back at 4 AM stumbling through the door…do it. As long as you have your student I.D., you are golden. There’s no mom or dad to tell you that you can’t go out or that you have to be back in by midnight…nope. This is college, this is freedom.

Are you tired of living in a small town where everyone knows everyone and everyone knows everyone else’s business? Moving away for college allows you to have a fresh start (this is a wonderful blessing). On a college campus of over 20,000 people, no one cares who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done. To most. this is a good thing. But for those who were popular in high school, this is not what they want. But seriously, a fresh start in a new place is absolutely amazing.

When you move away to college you learn so much more about yourself than you ever imagined. Moving to a new city can be a little overwhelming at first but once you settle in you begin to adventure and start to discover your true self. Let me tell you, you will learn things about yourself that never in a million years would you even think of to be true. You will also find out how many times you can consume Taco Bell in one week (if you’re like me you might not want to know the answer because it’s terrifying).

Lastly, you will gain a lot of independence when you move away for college. You need laundry done? Find yourself a dollar in quarters and head downstairs. You need groceries? Get in your car and head to Walmart. You want dinner? Find a friend and walk to the dining hall for a not so great or healthy meal (but there’s always Chick Fil A). Mom and dad may be a phone call away but they are also hundreds of miles away so they aren’t there to hold your hand every step of the way. Gaining independence was actually what I loved most about moving away for school. You learn so much about how you handle situations and how you manage your own time (which probably isn’t very well) but you get the hang of it eventually. Being a college kid away from home kind of feels like losing your mom in a store for four years, but you may find her every so often.

There are many perks of moving away for college and I’m so glad that I did. You experience things that you never thought you would, meet amazing new people and you might even figure out how to "adult" (probably not, but maybe).