Feature rough draft

As May looms close, thousands of students are gearing up for the day when smiling parents will fill the crowd and thousands of boxed caps will fill the air. It’s that glorious day we call graduation.
But inevitably that day will draw to a close and reality will settle in, and many of those graduates will find themselves asking the age-old question: so, now what? Those who have no immediate answer may find themselves taking the back-to-basics approach. Translation: They’re moving back home.
“I’ll definitely go home. I have no money, so it will be a good way to save up,” says Kali Parmley. Saving money is one of the obvious perks of returning home, where there is an always-comforting roof over your head and food on the table. But for some, even those guarantees aren’t enough to lure them home.
Senior Krissy Herman insists that she won’t be moving home. “I don’t get along with my parents, and I’m too used to having freedom,” she says. These seem to be the two biggest reasons that separate those who are willing to spend some time soul-searching at home from those who are ready to move out on their own.
“We get along much better when I don’t live at home,” says Herman of her relationship with her parents. She says that her decision to live elsewhere was a mutual one. Instead, Herman plans to stay in Springfield, OH, where she went to school, but for no more than a year.
But many can’t deny the benefits that come with returning home, especially if there are no familial obstacles in the way.
“I get along great with my parents,” says Parmley, who plans to live at home until she applies for graduate school.
And then there are those who fear that they will become far too comfortable with mom’s homemade cooking or dad’s handling of the bills.
“I hope I don’t go home, because I’ll never leave!” says junior Moe Buckley, already fearing that one possible future.
Home is, apparently, where the heart is. But more importantly, home is where the free food and rent are. And for many soon-to-be graduates, that’s exactly where they’re headed.