Growing up on animated Disney princess movies, I always had this idea in my head of what happily ever after meant: meeting my prince, falling in love and getting married, becoming a princess and riding off into the sunset (and maybe talking to some forest animals along the way).

So often we let our peers, families and the media tell us what we can and cannot do, what we should or should not do. For the longest time, I believed “happily ever after” was tied to the idea of fairytales and falling in love.

The older I get, the more I realize that couldn’t be further from the truth.

College is the time to figure out who you are, what you like to do and how you want to live your life. You discover what goals, ambitions and dreams are resting in your heart and hopefully, you have the confidence to chase those dreams, whatever they may be.

Everybody wants a happily ever after but “happily ever after” can mean so many different things for each person. Falling in love, starting a family, working your dream job and having your dream career, living in your favorite city, traveling the world, discovering what you’re passionate about, going to your dream college, working for a company you’ve always admired, having 25 fur-babies, winning chicken nuggets for life and so much more.

Let’s stop thinking happily ever after automatically means falling in love and riding off into the sunset with our prince.

Let’s create our own, personal definitions for the phrase.

For me, happily ever after is a journey. For me, happily ever after means having a career at the Walt Disney Company someday. I consider being recently accepted into the Disney College Program for this fall as the beginning of my happily ever after.

When thinking about your own happy ending, consider what’s most important to you, what you’re passionate about, things you’ve always wanted to do or see and activities that fill your life with joy and happiness.

Look inside yourself and reach out to find that happily ever after.