I graduated from high school just eighty-six days ago. My eyes have been opened, and I have grown as an adult in more ways than imagined.

Growing up I was always a moderately sheltered child. I was not allowed to watch certain shows on television, and I gave my iPhone (complete with parental restrictions) to my parents each night at 9:30pm.

If I were to hang out with a new friend, my mother would have to meet their mother. The typical life of a sheltered child.

I was not expecting what was to come next.

During the school year my senior year, I worked just ten to fifteen hours a week. Last week, I worked 50 hours between my two jobs. I went practically zero to one hundred in just a few weeks.

I know that there are people out there that work more than I do, and honestly, props to them. It has exhausted me more than ever before. But that's one thing that I've learned: that is life.

I also wasn't prepared for the mental aspect of it all. Most teenagers struggle with mental health, whether it be anxiety, depression, or just dealing with being alone.

Once summer began, and the reality set in that I did not really have many people in my life that were there for me or take the time to check in on me when I didn't see them everyday, that is when it really started to get difficult.

The people that I thought were some of my closest friends didn't make an effort to talk to me, or to hang out with me.

It began to get dark in my head, and I began to tell myself that it was because I was just a weird kid, and that no one wanted to hang out with me because they thought that I was annoying.

You figure it out, you see who is actually there for you. The hard part of that was just learning to move on and telling myself not to get in my head like that. Again, that is life.

The thing that probably stressed me out the absolute most would be financials. I was working all of the time, yet I never seemed to have any money.

But I lived with my parents, and I never had to pay the bills like a lot of kids my age. I was blessed with the ability to spend money-- but also cursed. Working at a discount department store with a decent discount was really getting to my head.

Some days I would go into work and spend my entire paycheck the day after I got paid. That may have been okay in high school, but in my house, it definitely doesn't fly afterward.

I needed to save for school, I couldn't just spend every penny that I made on just random crap that I had the slightest desire for. I needed money to pay for my car, food, and eventually rent.

I am still struggling to the day. Don't tell anyone, but yesterday I bought a Michael Kors purse just because it was on sale for only $59. Managing money is rough, but once again, that is life.

Transitioning into the life of a college student is really going to be pretty tough, but each year there are millions of people who take this leap, and I really do believe in myself.

That is my first step. In just eleven days, I set foot into my first college classroom, for my first real college class. I will be walking into a room of people who are just like me in a million different ways.

I will be surrounded by teenagers who are doing this for the first time, as well as many people who have done the same thing many times before I have. I am absolutely terrified, but I am absolutely ready.