The Out-of-State Experience

Graphic by Emily Ulfig

We all have to face the same excitement and apprehensions as we are dropped off at college, away from the familiarity of our lives before. Some are more than ready for this new opportunity, while some dread all of the changes coming at once. 

I had an 18-hour car ride with my parents from Houston to Minneapolis to think about everything that could go wrong my first time away from home. 

Of course, my Freshman year of college delivered; it brought more new adventures than I could ever have imagined. It provided a place to start over, meet an endless amount of new people, spend a Friday night doing whatever in the world I wanted, and still have the excitement of returning home every couple of months. 

I had been a homebody my whole life and loved everything about my life in Texas. Deciding to go to college out of state was the biggest decision I had ever made, and I was essentially betting on my ability to find happiness in the unknown. Fortunately, this risk worked out in my favor, and I was able to fill a new state with friends and memories.

For the first two years, I loved having two completely different places to call home. It felt so glamorous getting on a plane to go home and getting picked up at the airport to spill out to my family everything that I had been up to at school.

But shortly after I spent my first summer in Minnesota reality set in. Was this my life now, living in Minnesota, only seeing my family sporadically, and not knowing when I would return to the life I had known? Being an out-of-state student living across the country began to lose its appeal, and I felt a large disconnect from my life at home. I wondered if I would ever be able to live alongside my parents and hometown friends again.

I started to realize the limitations I faced by living in a new state by myself.  Finding a job near my life on campus became an intimidating task, as I couldn’t return home to find work close to my parents' house. When moving into an apartment with my best friend, I watched as she stole furniture and kitchen appliances from her home two hours away, while I had to pack my life into a suitcase and buy all new things in Minneapolis. 

Returning home for breaks started to feel more and more difficult, as flight prices have skyrocketed in the past couple of years. I had to miss entire weeks of lectures and catch up on mounds of schoolwork just to be able to fly home during our so-called Thanksgiving "Break." Also, the prolonged late Christmas break does not line up with any of my hometown friends and feels like I’m away from my usual routine for too long. 

I am always more than excited on both plane rides, one to Houston to see my family and home vs. one to Minneapolis to return to my apartment and friends. The reality of living in two different worlds where I am always missing the other had not set in until later in my college experience. However, the joys of being an out-of-state student at a school I love make it known that I made the right college decision despite these hidden difficulties.