I sat across from my mother at my kitchen table during Thanksgiving break. It was my last visit home before graduation and before I go off to the emerald city and my new job.

Who am I kidding? I'll be living in my parents' basement for the next seven years because my diploma says journalism (someone please resuscitate my father).

It was a deep and thought-provoking break in which I ate pumpkin pie, reminisced with friends and family, played basketball and touch football, ate more pumpkin pie, argued about Joe Paterno and of course, ate some pumpkin pie.

My parents and I were talking about my future. They seem to agree that working at Kmart or Borders might not be that bad. In all seriousness, I was telling them about my hopes and dreams of writing features, covering sports and someday being a columnist when my mom interrupted me.

"Do I have any pills to take?" she asked my father.

It was then that I realized I'm not one step closer to a job; I'm one step closer to taking a plethora of pills ranging in color and size. There will be warnings about my kidney pill possibly making my heart stop and my heart pill making my lungs stop. I'll have to take a pill that will offset my heart and kidney pills, which will ultimately make me grow hair on my fingernails.

I kept thinking about where the last four and a half years have taken me or, more importantly, where they will take me.

I realized my time at Penn State is divided into two halves. The first is my time at the Worthington Scranton Campus and the second is my time at University Park.

I want to talk about the first half.

The non-University Park campuses get no respect, but they should.

There were 83,177 students at Penn State this semester and 41,382 were not enrolled at University Park. That's 49.8 percent. So barely a majority of the students are at University Park. But everyone acts as if going to Penn State Worthington or Penn State Berks is just a stepping stone to State College. Sure, there is nothing like the HUB, College Avenue or Beaver Stadium at any other Penn State locations, but the campuses have grown greatly over the past few years.

Penn State Erie's Behrend Lions compete at the Division III level. I grew up watching Penn State Worthington Scranton basketball and it has come a long way in my short life -- its players now have four years of eligibility.

But it's not just athletics.

Of the best teachers I've had during my college career, most were from Worthington. It's rare for many students to know their teachers on a personal level here, but at the Scranton campus, teachers would eat in the Student Learning Center.

Professors showed up at athletic events and other extra-circular activities.

There was a real sense of community. And now those teachers are getting an opportunity that they didn't have for a long time: many of the campuses offer a dozen four-year and two-year degrees, and they continue to add programs.

Granted, I loved being at "the main campus" but my experiences at one of the "lesser campuses" are what I will always remember.

I guess I should be honest, I grew up at Worthington -- even before I was a student. That's because my father was, and still is, a professor there, my brother-in-law was president of the alumni association and my mother was a staff assistant there.

I was meandering around that campus when I was in diapers. And I'm fond of it. But it's not just Worthington.

When I went to that campus, I got involved in student government and was on the baseball team, so I traveled to many of the campuses. They all had interesting personalities and I would have enjoyed going to another campus just as much.

But they still get treated as if they are second rate, sometimes by the campuses' own personnel and often by University Park officials. Many students aren't going to take the campuses seriously until the administrations do.

And by that time, I'll be taking many pills.