And while some of you may be asking,  “Andrew, why wouldn’t you just then live at your parents’ house to save money?” I do not answer because I cannot hear you as I am currently BLASTING inappropriate music (“Soundtrack 2 My Life”- KiD CuDi).

And it is after 11pm.

On a Wednesday.

(QED)

But the fact is: I live within close enough range for my parents to wind up at my door if they were to go on a (really) long walk.

And what is that like?

Let me tell you:

I might as well be in Timbuktu (a location that, as a child, I believed to be the geographical furthest point from any civilized city thanks to the animated movie Aristocats).

You see: Ohio State is a community in itself. And even though I attended high school a literal three miles from the Horseshoe, I had no concept (0) of the goings-on here until I arrived on my first day freshman year. I think of Ohio State as a sort of community in which there are many (many) sub-communities. A sort of city of its own. Better yet: I’ve heard Ohio State referred to as “Buckeye Nation”.

“Buckeye Nation” indeed. Indeed (smokes pipe contemplatively). 

I’ve many times relayed that my favorite part about going to OSU is that ANYONE, no matter what that person is interested in, will almost certainly find a like-soul here. If not a club specific to that interest. And because of that, it becomes very easy to be fully absorbed in the community here.

Even though I live (very) close to my parents, the beauty of Ohio State is that it has so much to offer that, even if my parents thought they might be able to track me down, they couldn’t.

They’d probably be looking for me at the Wexner Center for the Arts film series when I’d be at the student improv show…Or the OSU Sailing Club meeting…Or the RPAC, working out…Or at the library…Or at Speed Scrabble Club…Or at Quidditch League...Or simply in the dorms or my campus house, veging…(The list goes on).

Not only would my parents be unable to find me at Ohio State, I do not feel some sort of impossible-to-remove connection to my parents’ community. I was afraid that I would never feel like I went away to school if I went where I was so close to home. The reality is quite the opposite. 

I never feel like I am at home unless I am literally strolling into the front door with intention to mercilessly raid the cupboards.

I do laundry at school.

I eat meals at school.

I live at school.

It just so happens that school is close to where my parents live.

But you would need to measure the distance to prove that, because it sure doesn’t feel that way.

And I’m super cereal about that.

-Andrew