Baldwin City and Lawrence are two Midwestern towns that students now consider home. Although 15 miles, 20,000 students and state versus private university life separates us from one another, we are not really that different.

We tailgate before home football games on Saturdays, procrastinate studying for exams and binge watch entire seasons of “Stranger Things” on Netflix.

Unlike most NAIA universities, we are neighbors with a town full of life, adventure and creativity. We are given the opportunity to escape from our stressors, drive down highway 59 with our music blaring, and pretend for a few moments we are free from it all. We forget about the onslaught of homework, papers, assignments and responsibilities.

Lawrence is a place where we can shop, eat, worship and party. I don’t think any Baker students would argue that without the University of Kansas community close by, our college experience would be drastically different.

We wouldn’t be able to go to the Hawk on Thursday nights or Pizza Shuttle on Saturdays. If we needed a dress for semi-formal we would have to drive to Kansas City or Johnson County. We wouldn’t be able to pick up groceries at Target or go to our bank on Massachusetts Street.

Lawrence gives us a taste of state school life, while still being able to come home to our 800-person campus, pass familiar faces and study alongside our friends rather than strangers.

We truly are lucky to be so close to such a diverse and exciting place. Some of my best memories come from squishing six of my closest friends in a car to make the 20-minute drive to Lawrence.

Whether taking girlfriends to shop at Plato’s Closet, Ross or Urban Outfitters, or going out to birthday dinners at Tokyo Sushi House or Free State Brewery, we are given the chance to live and learn in the quiet and serene comfort of Baldwin City, while still getting to experience the craziness that Lawrence seems to embrace.

Without the college town close by we would miss concerts at the Granada, coffee dates at Alchemy and pool parties at HERE apartments.

So, thank you LFK, for providing us with a taste of your artistic town, a getaway from the familiar silence of the cobbled streets of Baldwin City. Thank you for allowing us to dance under the lights of nightclubs, staying up much too late and answering proudly to the question of where we go to school; Baker.