Go confidently in the direction of your dreams...live the life you’ve imagined.

This is the time for small paychecks and big memories. It is the best time of your life, so enjoy it.

The biggest stressor for most high school seniors is what do they want to do after high school. There are millions of colleges for you to choose from, or maybe you want to just jump into a career path right away. Whatever you shall choose to pursue, the biggest question most people have is, how do you know if you've made the right choice? This question haunted me going into senior year until I thought I found the right college, but even then in the back of my mind I was always worried about what if I made the wrong choice? What if I would be happier somewhere else? I feel that these questions are a natural phase to go through being that in all reality, this is the first grown up decision that you will make that can influence the rest of your life. You get to choose the setting for the next stage of your life.

I think for me personally, the biggest deciding factor on where to go to college was that I needed to find someplace where I felt like I was home. I visited several colleges and never really felt like I belonged there. I was worried I was never going to fall in love with a place like my friends older than me had talked about. That is until I came to UW-La Crosse. Every college has a persona it gives off to future students and UWL turned out t be the right one for me. The first day I visited, it was raining and there was construction everywhere but still something drew me to the college. I remember turning to my mom as we started the tour of campus and saying, “this is the place for me.” To this day I still don't know what drew me to UWL but I still have 3 years to figure it out and I can't wait to find out. The only thing I really know is that I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the ride so far and I’m excited to see what the future holds for me.

Going through a year of college and being back home for the summer makes me miss my new home that I chose for myself. I met a ton of great friends that I will probably keep in touch with for the rest of my life. I guess it's pretty safe to say that I know I chose the right path for my life and I couldn't be happier about it. Don't settle for anything less than the best, visit twenty colleges if you have to. Once you've found the right place, you will know, it's the best feeling in the world.

"You get a strange feeling when you leave a place, like you'll not only miss the people you love, but you miss the person you are at this time and place because you'll never be this way ever again." - Azar Nafasi