The thing is "miserable" is very much just an opinion, and that which can and realistically would change with time.
As an example: I grew up on the western border of Maryland, very close to WV. For 23 years I would wake up and look out my windows and see the mountains - that way is west. My entire life has been spent outdoors, swimming and fishing in the Potomac, climbing the mountains, all of it was great. This last summer I moved to Wisconsin for my wife's schooling. Needless to say, for the first like 2 months I was indeed "miserable" and even a little depressed. I looked out my window hoping for the mountains and got telephone poles. I would go hiking and they have to build towers out here as lookouts since the land is so flat. Yet now almost a year in, I can understand the charm of the midwest. I appreciate this area more than I had expected. I am in fact very happy where I am living, even though I am roughly 900 miles from most of my friends and family. This is because this place feels like home with time, I have made a lot of new friends, and when its not snowing, it is actually quite beautiful. Now that it is warm, I am finding new places to swim and fish, I am appreciating the ridiculously blue skies (much bluer than MD), and I can appreciate how little humidity there is - even though I thought I would miss it.
So obviously this is anecdotal, but the reality is, happiness is really just a perspective that can change so easily. I am convinced without a shadow of a doubt that going to MSU OOS or even CCOM is not worth it, if you are talking about for the sake of feeling happy. Because it is just that.. a feeling. Feelings change - think about who you were 4-5 years ago... you think you had a clue of what you really wanted? How many of your desires have stayed completely on par with what you wanted? Are you miserable because things turned out differently? I think realistically you didnt know exactly what you wanted 4-5 years ago, and you likely dont know exactly what you want now. But that is the adventure of living.
Now if you are gunning for a super crazy specialty, sure CCOM is solid, no doubt. And if you are wanting to stay close to family or something... sure I get that too. But if you say "I just felt ever so slightly more comfortable at CCOM than I did at X school that has tuition for 20k less" I am going to just suggest to suck it up, because thats real money you are playing with. When I was still in school, the money was still so far away and debt felt like something we just joked about in school. Every semester I would just keep signing on the dotted line and never really contemplated just how much money the schooling cost. But now that I am out working and 1/4 of everything that I work hard to make is snatched from me before I even get to see it just to pay for college debt, I can tell you with 100% sincerity, no school is worth that kind of money... Especially if you have a cheaper option available to you.
Happiness is a very young thing to talk about. Like as if going to place A or B will make you any happier. You are the same happy or miserable person no matter where you go, and your problems will follow you no matter where you go. If you are someone who makes the best of things anywhere, you will be fine anywhere, if you somehow see the doom and gloom in all things, you will be miserable a month in, even though you somehow got into your first choice. The problem is people hardly ever can know exactly which one of those people they are. I used to think about happiness as a certain place or thing, but after paying a frick ton of money for my undergrad to be "happy" and then realizing if I stuck it out at my first school, I would have likely been more happy and a better person for it.
If the future you could go back in time after going to MSU OOS to become a PCP, I bet he/she would smack the younger you in the face. Just hoping to help anyone now or in the future, who reads this.
