Having now lived on a college campus for almost two years in one of the most well-known cities on the planet, I’ve come to the conclusion that every once in a while it’s important to get away from campus.
I really love Drexel University’s campus, so much that I rarely venture out of it to go see other parts of Philadelphia. However, the more time I spend on campus, the more I begin to realize that I really should be making a greater effort to get away from campus every now and again.
Since my arrival at Drexel, I’ve made it a ritual to return home to New Jersey once every other weekend. By doing this, I unintentionally spend as many weekends at home as I do at Drexel. This isn’t to say that you have to follow this exact same practice though. I know people who are perfectly fine with only visiting home one or two times per quarter. There are also people who only go home for holidays and spend all the rest of their time on campus. That would never work for me, but those people have always seemed content with being away from home a lot, so that goes to show that different things work for different people.
Going home is also not the only option for getting away from campus. Many of my friends don’t live close enough to Drexel’s campus to go home. I’m lucky enough to live only a two-hour car ride away. But getting away from campus can just be going to a different part of the city that’s not related to Drexel. And since this is Philadelphia, there’s no shortage of things to do, especially on the weekends.
That said, there are some serious benefits to taking the occasional trip off campus. One major reason is that you can just get away from the social environment that is college. There’s no constant reminder that you need to get homework done or that you have class the next day. You don’t have to sit in your room trying to relax while your roommate is trying to make you deaf with loud music. You can get away from the inevitable drama that you have to deal with if you have an extremely active social life. And it’s just good for your mental health to get away. Too much of anything really is bad for you, and that same rule applies to life on a college campus.
And go with friends, preferably ones that you enjoy spending time with. Some of my best experiences of my college life have been ones that took place with friends away from Drexel’s campus and in other parts of the city like Chinatown.
It’s also just great to get out and explore a city as diverse as Philadelphia. I wish I had more free time to enjoy the city and all its attractions, and I’m realizing that it’s important to take advantage of the free time I do have.
Drexel’s campus is great and I’ve enjoyed much of the time I have spent on it, but there’s a whole other world out there just waiting to be explored and it’s only a few blocks away.