It’s the end of the year here at Lewis and Clark. Unsurprisingly, the biggest thing I’m going to miss this summer is the friends I’ve made at LC. Don’t get me wrong I am excited to see my friends at home, but I have nothing like the community I have found here at LC.
The logistics of going home can be complex. Especially if you’re dealing with these things for the first time, without your parents. I live far away, and I’ve discovered going home can be surprisingly expensive. Between flights, storage, shipping it can really add up, and that’s not including smaller expenses like getting to the airport or buying food on the way home.
If money is something you worried about I would strongly recommend:
1. Planning far ahead of time.
2. Work with friends and acquaintances to cut costs. Split a ride or a storage unit, ask a friend to drive you.
3. Weigh your options. You’ll have a lot of choices. Remember that these are big decisions and you should do what is best for you.
I, like many freshmen, am heading back to my parent’s house all the way in Indiana. This isn’t necessarily obligatory. Some people I know are staying in portland and living with friends or renting an apartment.
I will be flying home. There are a few things that make flying more difficult. Transportation is one of the biggest factors. There is a shuttle from LC to the portland airport, but because I schedule my flights so far ahead of time the shuttle hasn’t been there when I need it. Ride services are the obvious other source of transportation, but these can be deceivingly expensive. When I got a ride from the airport to LC it was 55 dollars. That’s over a fourth of the cost of my flight!
The other big logistical thing is storage. When first coming to LC anything I couldn’t take with me on the plane I had mailed here. Now, I don’t want to mails stuff back and forth, but I also need somewhere to leave my things over the summer. LC has some storage, but it is limited and international students understandably get priority. LC suggests that you get a storage unit. I am getting a storage unit off-campus with a few friends of mine. One great thing about the storage unit is that if you split it between enough people it’s pretty reasonably priced. I’m splitting it with five people and it’s costing me about 60 bucks for the whole summer.
A quick tip: If you take any prescribed medication, getting refills in different places can be super stressful. Kroger subsidiaries are everywhere and they include, among others, Fred Meyers and CVS. The Pio (LC bus service) goes to the Burlingame Fred Meyers, and it is relatively simple to transfer meds between stores. So, that is something you can consider.
P.S. Indiana is going to be a hot spot for this brood of the seventeen-year cicadas, so I am excited to go home for that. Seriously, cicada’s are so cool!!