Students these days cant catch a break. We are constantly stressed out trying to work as hard as we can to get through the millions of classes we need to take and get the best grades possible.

We are all in this to get a degree and hope to get a job with that degree. But before anything, you need to ask yourself one essential question...

Who are you?

It is such a simple question, yet there is so much meaning to it, and there are so many different answers.

This is a question that can haunt people for the rest of their lives. It's a question that you can sit and think about for countless hours and still not have an answer.

As I sit here and ask myself this question, I've noticed I don't have just one single answer. There are many answers, actually thousands of answers, that pop into my head.

My first thoughts about who I am are all basic and more on the objective side of things.

I am a 21-year-old girl.

I am also a student.

I am a student who is hoping to receive her AA degree from community college and soon transfer to SF State.

While this is great that I'm possibly going to get my AA and eventually my BA, it is not enough for me, and it shouldn't be enough for anyone.

How can we let a piece of paper saying we graduated completely define us?

That simple piece of paper keeps many students up late at night, losing sleep and stressing out day after day that sometimes you can lose who you truly are.

The past couple years have probably been some of my hardest years by far, for the sole reason that everything you do is what your future is based on.

That thought alone scares me to death and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.

Here's how I see it:

First, you pick a major. Then, you take the classes (and pass them).

After, it's recommended to get an internship (or four). Then you graduate and receive that piece of paper you have worked so hard for.

Next up, you need to start your career and as great as it is that you have your degree, sometimes it just isn't enough.

Right now, I am only in phase two and three of this process that I call "The Start To Our Futures," and I feel like I am moving extremely slow through it.

But that's OK.

This process is only just a part of me, it is not who I am.

Once I receive my degree it will be something I earned, not something that defines my future.

I am someone who is compassionate.

I am someone with many goals.

I am someone who is surrounded by so many loving people who push me to be my best every day.

I will be whatever and whoever I want. I will not let a piece of paper define my future.

I am me.

So now.... ask yourself.

Who are you?