It is so hard to describe to outsiders why I love Kent State. I think we even have a hard time describing to each other why we love Kent State.

I had the pleasure of a visit from my mom and Dan, my 24-year-old brother, this weekend at “college” as they call it – not school, not Kent, but “college.”

As the first generation college student of my immediate family, they don’t quite understand what this whole thing is about.

My mom commented that it definitely wasn’t hot enough outside for the many sun bathers and wondered out loud if all college students do is “lay around.”

Little does she know, lying around is a rare and precious occasion in many of our lives.

I bragged to Dan about how cool Kent was during Easter break, so I guess he was expecting amusement park rides and a nightly firework show.

But, the coolest thing I could think of was to take them to the park under the bridge downtown and the always delicious Swensons.

We had fun just being together, but I think Dan, who is a lonely veteran, was expecting Girls Gone Wild.

“If Kent is cool because people play cornhole in their front yard all day, it’s not very cool,” he said, as my mom still giggled like the Catholic school girl she once was every time someone says “cornhole.” Apparently, it meant something different in her day.

However, Dan was thoroughly impressed with how many “amazingly hott” women there are here. He demonstrated this as he stared down a young woman on crutches for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Coming from a small town and a high school with an average graduating class of 100, any girl not wearing overalls is gorgeous to him. (Girls, he desperately needs a girlfriend. Feel free to Facebook him.)

But, Kent State has more than good looking people.

We are actually a pretty great school for a lot of different majors. Yeah, we laugh when someone says “Kent read, Kent write, Kent remember what I did last night,” but only because we know we’re better than that.

Maybe we don’t remember what we did last night, but more importantly, we remember what we did in class.

We have mastered the skill of making it to class after a long night out. We know how to have fun, but at the end of the day we get our work done too.

So, I still can’t describe why I love Kent. We all have our different reasons, but people who don’t go here will never understand. I think it might just be the amazing people here.

Jessica Lumpp is a sophomore magazine journalism major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].