Home is where the heart is.

This familiar saying has been passed from generation to generation as the traditional definition for the word “home.”

This definition, however, has been called into question by many college students over the years as they learn how to make the transition from the place they grew up to the place they share with thousands of other students.

These different ideas of home are what send many students back to that place every weekend. Where home is, what is waiting there, and what is offered here – can affect whether or not students return home every week.

Here at the University, most students stay in Bowling Green for the weekends. Many students simply cannot go home because they live in other states and cannot afford the plane ticket.

“I wish I could go home, but I live too far away to go home,” Erica Schiebel, a junior from Pittsburgh, said.

Homesickness is a common ailment for students, especially freshmen.

“I do miss home, and sometimes my mom. I kinda wish I had gone to school somewhere closer,” freshman Justin Birt, originally from Cleveland, said.

Homesickness affects many freshmen because they are out on their own for the first time, often doing tasks such as their own laundry for the first time.

But as students become more involved on campus, they become less affected about not going home as often.

“I really don’t get homesick,” Megan Link, sophomore, said.

As president of A Capella choir, Link said she sometimes can’t afford to lose a weekend on campus by returning home.

At some colleges, such as Wright State University, going home every weekend is a regular practice for most students.

“Wright State is a very local school,” Lindsay Snyder, a sophomore at WSU said, since many of the students are from the neighboring towns of Kettering, Bellbrook, Centerville and Beavercreek.

Snyder said the main reason she and other WSU students return home is to see friends.

Wright State University is a prime example of what is called a “suitcase school,” where the majority of students go home every weekend.

This is definitely not the case at BGSU, though.

With all the campus activities for the student body, movies playing in the Union, bars, dance clubs and boutiques downtown Bowling Green has to offer, there are ample choices for a bored student to make.

Because of this, some students who are easily able to go home do not miss it at all.

Sophomore Josh Newton, from Port Clinton, has a girlfriend and large group of friends back home and even has a car on campus, but said he rarely goes home, “because it’s college!” he said.