My sister and her friends visited this weekend for Homecoming.

She and her friends graduated from Eastern four years ago and usually come and visit once a year.

I always hear stories about what they miss about college, but often about what they miss about Charleston.

They complain about how Boxa is gone, talk about how Stu’s has changed and always order Papa Johns because there is not one near our home.

My four years in East-Central Illinois are coming to a close very soon.

That is terrifying in its own right. I am becoming an old person who has to be responsible and stuff.

At the same time, it makes me wonder what I will miss about Charleston.

Before I say what I will probably miss, here is what I definitely won’t miss.

Mediacom: I hate Mediacom. I hate their lack of content OnDemand.

I hate how once every two weeks, OnDemand and the Internet will go out without warning and it takes two or three days to fix.

Charleston PD: Enough said.

People telling me to visit the Lincoln Log Cabin: Nothing in the world sounds more boring than visiting this place. In my four years here, I have been told to visit it like 300 times.

I had to visit places like this 300 times in grammar school, where they showed you how people used to live, and they are never fun. Cool, they had to make baskets by hand. Guess what, I have a guy in China who does that for me.

Now, for what I will miss about Charleston.

Jimmy Johns being open late: I live about a block away from a Jimmy John’s at home, but for some reason it closes at like 10 p.m.

Sometimes people get hungry at night and do not want pizza.

Plus, Club Lulu’s are scientifically proven to taste better at 2 a.m.

Discount Smoke Shop: By far my favorite place in the Charleston area.

The prices are cheap, the people who work there are so nice and it is conveniently located right off campus.

Plus, if you don’t feel like getting out of the car, they have a drive through to purchase smokes. What could be better than that?

Homecoming and Unofficial St. Patrick Day Weekends: It is always great to walk out of the house on those Saturday mornings and hear the music blaring from all around campus in the background.

Plus, all you have to do is sit on your porch and you have entertainment stumbling by all day. Having grown up on the southside of Chicago and attending the parade my entire life, I can honestly say the only thing that comes close to the now canceled Southside St. Patrick’s Day Parade is unofficial weekend.

Sure, you can visit for these events, but it is not the same.

I still have a few more months left in Charleston, but pretty soon, I’ll be back telling students how it used to be.

Dan Cusack is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at 581-7942 or at

[email protected].