“College is the best time of your life. When else are your parents going to spend several thousand dollars a year just for you to go to a strange town and get drunk every night?” – David Wood
College is a time of experimentation, learning and having fun. College is also a time where a young adult can break away from the invisible fetters that bound the child to the parent.
Why is it then, that most of the ETSU student body leaves on the weekends and visits her or his home? Now I’m not talking about those students who commute to campus or live somewhere other than the ETSU campus. I’m talking about those students who live in the dorm or the college apartments nearby.
I thought that college was where one leaves the family and learns how to develop independence. When one leaves to go home on the weekend, one loses that sense of “college-ness;” that sense of community and interaction between fellow students. These are the times where one can develop strong relationships with students.
This experience is one of the primary associations with college. For example, when people are older, they will remember back to that time where they shared a bonding moment with another student. These bonding moments are lost when a student is absent at a critical period of one’s potential social life.
Now I know that Johnson City isn’t exactly the best place for one to find fun on the weekends. However, does where you’re going have any more things to do than Johnson City? It seems like most of the towns in Tennessee are pretty dull. Therefore, why not just stay here on the weekends?
I think if there were enough people staying around on ETSU
campus, then we could create our own fun on the weekends.

Author