on going to an out-of-state university

NOTE: This post was originally written just after my freshman year of college when I was at home for the summer. 

At my job as a temp in a warehouse, there are two distinct categories of employees: the college kids and everybody else. The college kids are the ones who are just looking to make a few bucks in-between semesters; they all quit within the first few weeks of August to scurry back to their respective universities. Obviously, I fall into this category.

Now, you may not believe it, but taking textbooks out of boxes, shrink wrapping them, and then putting them into new boxes doesn't generally tend to spark interesting talking points. Therefore, most Cengage employees try to make small talk in a (usually vain) attempt to distract oneself from the painful monotony of the job. Or, they just choose to remain taciturn and work with a robotic fury. Empty box, stack books, count books, send them down the line. In silence. Getting to my point now. The usual attempt at small talk directed toward the college kids starts a little something like this: "So, where do you go to school?" Actually, I corrected the grammar of the question for my own personal sanity. It's usually something more like "So where d'ya go ta school at?" Shudder.

I know what people are expecting when they ask me this question. They expect a comfortable, familiar answer. EKU. UK. NKU. UofL. They expect an acronym that has a K in it. But with or without the K, they expect a Kentucky school. My answer is not what they expect.

It didn't take me long to catch on to people's confusion when I delivered three letters that fit so neatly together in my mind, but generally sound foreign and clunky to my coworkers. And so I've learned to make a few adjustments to make the conversation move along a little faster. I'm half afraid, though, that people will think that the name of my school is Brigham Young It's in Utah University due to my impatient nature. You see, rather than wait of the inevitable "Where?" or "Never heard of it" that follows my answer to their question, I've learned to insert a geographical landmark in the same breath. Everybody wins this way, if you ask me, because I don't have to have quite as many questions asked of me  and the questioner is spared feeling silly for not having heard of a fairly well-known university. People around here, I've found, generally tend to care very little about and/or be very unfamiliar with any location west of the Mississippi. Now I said I get asked fewer questions. My inquisitive coworkers still ask me such things as: Well, what are you doing in Kentucky? Why did you choose a school so far away? Isn't it lonely out there? and (my new personal favorite) So, do you do classes online or something? 

I don't mind answering their questions (I grew up here and am home for the summer; recite LONG list of reasons why I chose BYU; No, not really; Uh. No. I live in Utah during the school year) but I still wonder sometimes why it's so odd to some people that I chose to leave the state to gain my higher education. I think this is a good time to point out the fact that I'm not bashing Kentucky schools. My home state has some  fabulous universities that provide students the opportunity to get a good education. I didn't choose to leave Kentucky because I didn't think any of the schools were "good enough" for me or anything pompous like that. I chose BYU because it was the best fit for me; It offered everything that I was looking for in a university. It just happens to be 1,600 miles away from my hometown. And honestly? It is the best decision I could have made.