Opinion by AvaWeis

As seniors begin to think about their first year in college, many start to wonder how often they should visit home. Whether you are 30 minutes down the road or 15 hours away, homesickness is inevitable. But how should these feelings be cured?

For many, freshman year of college is the first time you are living away from home and away from life as you know it. This is the time in your life where you are learning independence and responsibility.It is easy to want to constantly commute home, but I argue that this may be more detrimental to your college experience. I believe that family time is so important, but so is making new connections and friendships at college.

 If you are consistently away from school, creating a new life for yourself and meeting new people is going to be a lot more challenging. The first couple of weeks at college are likely to be difficult—dealing with new schedules, living with someone new and being away from home. However, these first weeks are when you learn to live and do things on your own. 

The longer you stay at college, the more you will become used to the college lifestyle. If you are never at school, you will never feel comfortable there. The whole goal is to make this new environment feel like a second home. The only way to do this is to actually live there.

This is not to say that you should never visit home. Visiting home can be beneficial for your mental health. The occasional weekend trip home for holidays, birthdays or just for fun can be so good to escape the college lifestyle for a bit and enjoy family time. 

According to the May 2024 Network, 52% of Marian graduates stayed within an hour of home. This makes driving home when needed totally possible. 

In the end, what is most important is that you need to do whatever will make college enjoyable for you. Whether that is coming home every week or staying at college most of the time, finding a good school/life balance is important.