It takes me about 20 minutes to get to Bryn Mawr from home. Even with that close distance, I get homesick quite a bit. I see my friends who come from places far aw

The distance between Bryn Mawr and my hometown.

ay like California and Chicago and often feel like I shouldn’t feel so homesick. I mean, technically I could go home whenever I want-but let’s be real. With all of the work that Bryn Mawr demands including exams, readings, problem sets, labs, etc. I have days where I can’t even call home, let alone get home (there is no direct train by the way.)

Me visiting a school in Florida my senior year of high school.

It can be exasperating getting the “well you live so close by,” or “you can go home whenever,” comments. Yeah I could, but I can’t. I came to college for the college experience. It isn’t my fault that Bryn Mawr College is close to where I live. I didn’t necessarily choose Bryn Mawr because of location (although I love Philly, and would hate to be elsewhere.) Truth be told, before coming to Bryn Mawr, I was getting ready to go to a school in Florida-a school that was 1,040 miles away.

There are definite pros to going to a school close to home. Getting home for breaks usually just depends  on when my parents can pick me up (again no direct trains to where I live). If I forget something at home/need something, I just need to coordinate with my parents to figure out how I could get it. But there are also a bunch of cons. I’m still in suburban Philadelphia. There isn’t much of a scene change for me which is something that I wanted when searching for schools. And again, I get the comments and looks of “you live close by, why are you complaining?” 

While I know how lucky I am to be going to a school close by, it doesn’t make the homesickness just go away. I get days where all I want to do is go home, just like students who are very far away from home too.