Away
By Trenton Carlson | Torch Reporter
I don’t understand why some students would ever want to go to a university close to their hometown.
For me going away to college meant freedom and the opportunity to be who I wanted to be without worrying about things such as popularity like in high school. I also thought that the farther I went away from home would mean the more ability I would be granted.
I’m from Port Huron, Michigan, just thirty minutes north of Detroit and about three and a half hours from Big Rapids. Going to Ferris was my first choice because it allowed me to experience life away from home with the long drive deterring me from making the trip every weekend like some people.
To me, it just seems like people who are still caught in the same hometown loop went to ether Central Michigan University, Michigan State or stayed in town and went to community college. To me, this is a one-way ticket to never leaving your hometown, something I have looked forward to for years. For this reason, when I was given the opportunity, I couldn’t pass it up.
Understandably, college is costly and if that is the issue, by all means, do what you have to do to get your education. But if you have the opportunity to go anywhere why waste it?
It allows you to make an entirely new group of friends and the opportunity to reintroduce yourself to a society you are unfamiliar with as they are unfamiliar with you. You have so much freedom when you branch out and get away from home.
Going away to college may also be beneficial because you don’t know a lot of people. Therefore, giving you more time to focus on yourself instead of being less than an hour away from home and having friends expecting you to come back for the weekend.
In my opinion, it just seems logical to want to branch out. It’s your first opportunity to see the world, so why waste it?
Home
By Marissa Russell | Torch Reporter
Staying home for college was the most logical thing for me to do. I am from Reed City, a small city about 20 minutes away from Big Rapids. Growing up I was always close to Ferris’ campus, dreaming of the day I got to be one of the college kids walking around cam- pus. Now I’m living the dream while saving hundreds of dollars because I live so close to campus I commute every day. I also don’t have to pay for groceries or very much on gas.
I love the fact that I know a lot about the area of Big Rapids. Most people say there’s not much around Big Rapids to do but I don’t think of it like that. I love the calming atmosphere of Big Rapids and while we might not have a lot of bars and clubs around we do have a lot of cool things like parks and country roads. Because I am from here I get the opportunity to show all my college friends things they might not know about.
Another reason why I picked Ferris is because a lot of my close friends from high school also decided to go to Ferris. I knew that if I went to Ferris I wouldn’t be alone, I would at least have some friendly faces I knew around campus.
Moving away from home helps many students reinvent themselves and become someone different than their high school self. For me I was ok with who I was in high school. I knew exactly who I was and didn’t want to change.
Moving away might have made me into someone I didn’t recognize and I didn’t like that thought. Although I do plan to move away from the Big Rapids area one day I am OK with staying around here for now.
I love the area I come from and I am proud to represent it every day I go to class.