If you have gone to the opposite coast for college or very far, how often do you get to visit your family?

Question

I am hoping to go to college from Southern CA to Boston, but I am afraid to leave my family and feel that I will never see them. Honestly, how many times do you current college students see your family a year? Also, how far apart are you located from your family?

Answer 1

When I was an undergraduate, I saw them for xmas and the beginning and end of the summers (got a job elsewhere in between).  That's when my college was a 3 hour drive away from home.  Now my university (grad school) is a 20 hour drive away, or a flight.  I see them once a year.

Answer 2

I live in Texas & attend NYU...roughly 2000 miles.  Last year, my family came up to visit for Thanksgiving, & I flew down for winter break which lasted about a month.  I came back for the summer.

Pretty much, you may not see them for months at a time, but when you do, it's probably for some length.  So you have all the holidays, spring break (if you choose to go back), and all of summer (if you're not interning/working).  Not to mention, all the various modes of contact that are available.  (My madre called just about every day.) Some kids even decided to have video chats with their folks back home.  Whatever's beneficial for you, go for it.

I was all ready to leave TX and pursue my own thing.  Though the first two months were a mix of emotions for me. I'm quite close to my fam (I'm sure it doesnt help matters that I'm the only child) & most of my friends went to relatively the same instate colleges...as much of a temptation as all of that was, the comfort factor that would be available, that I could count on to run to or be there, if need be, I knew I needed to break away from that...to not rely on that.

I love my family, my support system, the people that'll love me regardless.  I love my inner circle, as I like to call 'em, the kids who I've grown up with, since kindergarden, but I realized that there's so much more out there.  And to not leave, to not explore and experience unfamiliar things, to not establish new relationships with people...would just have been a bunch of not(s)...things i could have done...but were afraid to do.  And what kind of life would that be?

Leaving the normal, what you know & have always known, can be nerve-racking.  It's scary stuff.  It'll test you...  But it's makes you a h**l of a lot stronger, more resilient.  & If that's the school you'd love to attend, then dont let distance stop you.  

Good luck!

Ah & if you do decide to leave your state, here's a site where college students can find good deals on airfare:

http://www.studentuniverse.com/