FALLing back into school routine…
As fall rolls through us (and here in Chicago, faster than some other places), students have recently been let free on our Fall Break! With two whole (extra) days off of class, there are a million and one things students do. It’s so nice!
Some of my friends just stayed home, catching up on Netflix and steadfastly ignoring midterms looming on the horizon. Others went to their hometowns, doing laundry, petting their dogs, and eating homemade food – a welcome relief after they’ve been making ramen for the past two months. Some people take this time to double-down on work and get those $$$, and some – but very few, considering we’re college students who could save this money and eat around Chicago or pay rent – travelled.
I don’t know about what you did the first weekend of October, but I was one of the travelling few. Well, it wasn’t just for no reason or sightseeing. One of the hardest things about college is how your friends split up and scatter around the nation. One of my highschool friends went up back to her native Canada and we hardly ever see her. Another fled down to Texas to study near family, although most of them just moved over to Wisconsin for schooling. Besides Canada and Texas, me being here in Chicago is the farthest-away of our tight-knit group of friends.
Because Texas’ parents moved to Austin as well, she doesn’t get much opportunity to come back north to our hometown in Minnesota to see us, and it’s really hard for us to go down to her. But that’s what I did! A shaky (but cheap) Spirit airlines ride from O’Hare and there I was in sunny, summery Houston! I’m very lucky she mostly takes online classes so we could drive to Austin and I could take up her time on Monday and Tuesday too. It was a great experience for me to see her college friends and her college – Loyola, being around 15,000 (last I checked), is not too small of a school. But she goes to Texas A&M, with a student body of over 60,000!
(that’s me)
They are steeped in tradition, despite being younger than Loyola, and if you don’t have a car or a bike to get around campus – you can take the campus bus or you’re screwed! It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been on a different school’s campus, and it was a flashback to my college touring days for sure. One of the reasons I chose Loyola was for its medium size, so I could run into friends between classes and walk from one end to the other without being in a huge rush or a risk of being late to classes. That’s my style. Hers is driving and having a few hangout spots with her friends in a sea of people. It all depends on you!
Whether you’re considering a large public school, a small or medium private one, or anything in between, it’s important to carefully weigh your style (or what you want your style to be.) But most importantly, I think, it’s important to hold on to your friendships from earlier in your life if you like them – and take opportunity of breaks!