Editor's Note: Each week, Amy examines a small group of students in order to understand the individual Dartmouth experience as part of a whole. This week, Amy sits down with two students who barely left home when they came to college.
Whenever anyone asks me what I'd change about Dartmouth if I could, I always answer in a heartbeat that I would move it closer to home.
The eight-plus hour drive is nothing compared to the epic 11-hour train ride that I take when I can't convince my parents that they feel like wasting two days of their lives to drop me off at school. I'm incredibly jealous of my sister, who lives just over an hour away from my parents in Philadelphia; close enough to go home overnight to eat some good food, sleep in clean sheets and steal a couple hugs from Mom.
But is there such a thing as too close? This week, I talked to Josh and Eli, for whom home is so close to school that they can live in their own houses.
Josh was very clear about the advantages that living at home offers him.
"I like it mostly because I have younger brothers. I hang out with them a lot ... My parents like it because I can help out on the farm most mornings. [Living at home] also costs a lot less."
Having lived in the dorms freshman year, Josh feels he's done the living-at-college deal, and it wasn't that much of a plus.
"Living on campus isn't the same thing as being on your own. I'm not missing out on any valuable life experience," he said.
Living at home doesn't prevent Josh from participating in all facets of college life, including being a member of a sports team, as well as a fraternity. His friends from both organizations are always willing to put him up on a couch.
"I probably sleep on campus once every 10 days, maybe more last term," he estimated.
I pointed out that we've only been in school for about 10 days so far this term.
"I'm projecting," Josh said patiently.
I wondered if Josh had a hard time separating his home and school life, but he said it isn't a problem.
"Actually, I feel like I'd like to have them more intertwined," he said. "Because our schedules are so different from everyone else's, I think I'd never get to see my friends from home otherwise. Living close to home means I can see my friends from home."
Eli's off campus this term, but has also lived at home during her Dartmouth years. We caught up over blitz.
I asked Eli about how she set boundaries between her home life and school life, especially if, as she said, her family is "obsessed with pong" and joining a sorority allowed her to give her family members a warmer place to play than their basement.
Eli said the hardest boundary to set is with her mother, who doesn't get into town that often during the week.
"[It's hard for her] to understand that even though I live at home, I do go to school and have work and whatnot, and really don't have time to pick up her stuff from the drycleaners or drop off her watch at the jewelry store."
Overall, though, Eli finds plenty of pros to living at home.
"Parking, always having access to a car, home-cooked meals, having a place to get away from it all, knowing your professors' kids, laundry and living next door to the dean."
Suddenly, colliding my home and school lives doesn't sound half bad. Until Eli tells me about an early morning encounter with her grandparents:
"It was 7:45 a.m. [one Sunday morning my freshman year] and I was trying to discreetly sneak back to my dorm, still dressed in full-out '80s attire. [Unfortunately] at the one major street crossing, my grandparents happened to be driving by. They were wondering if I wanted to go to church with them because they were on their way."
You know, on second thought, I'm glad my family is over 300 miles away.
