If there's anything I've learned throughout my years of college, it's that

MY plan does not matter.

Entering my last semester of Undergrad is bittersweet. We've just gotten used to the change that impacted our innocent worlds just 3 years ago. Now, our worlds are about to change again.

We're about to trade our carefree lifestyles--full of late night studying (or partying), spontaneous adventures, constant community--for early mornings, full-time jobs, daily routines, and reminiscence on "the good ole days."

But we don't have to.

We lock our doors to our apartments we shared countless meals and laughter within, shed tears with the lifelong friends we spent 4 years creating, and drive away from the run-down but characteristic campus that quickly became a home to us when we were timid Freshmen gradually climbing the college food-chain. We wonder how we could ever leave a place that has formed us into the best versions of ourselves in 4 short but long years.

I know this is all very cliche and cheesy, but the healthiest thing we can do for ourselves is allow ourselves to feel. Feel the joy while being surrounded by your best friends. Take time to pause each moment and appreciate how blessed you are to be surrounded by people who want to laugh alongside you. Feel the heartbreak when the "love of your life" decides forever is too long. Take time to acknowledge the genuine human beings who are there to wipe your tears away. Feel the disappointment when you don't do well on a test you studied countless nights preparing for. Take time to eat ice cream with your friends who didn't do so well, either. Take time to feel the gratitude for these moments. Yes, be grateful for the moments it's easy to be grateful--those funny stories your friends share while piecing together the night before, acing that test, the sweet person who told you your hair looks good today, the lazy Sunday mornings, the incredible people you encounter every day you call your best friends.

But also take time to be grateful for the trials, the challenges, the heartaches...the moments you feel your world is falling down around you and you wonder how you're still standing. The moments you question who's really listening to your prayers. The moments you have no idea what the next step is on this crazy, rocky road in front of you. Be GRATEFUL. Gratitude is the root of faith, and faith is the root of love... We cannot allow our hearts to give love to others until we realize we have love in our hearts to give. In these moments of gratitude we realize just how temporary our trials truly are. With each hurdle there is a stretch of flat, solid ground to run on until the next hurdle. But we are still running the race. Running this race means we're ALIVE. We're alive and capable of overcoming these hurdles. That's enough to be grateful for.

We don't plan for trials; we don't plan to struggle. We don't plan to ask God, "Why me?" But we also don't plan for joy, either. Joy comes in just as much abundance each day as trials do. Joy, just as challenges, is unexpected. It's in life's mysteries that we find the most fruitful experiences. The spontaneous moments become our favorite memories.

Not having a plan is the best thing we can do for ourselves. Not having a plan is when we let ourselves shift into auto-pilot and God takes over for us. Not having a plan allows less room for disappointment when our plans fall through and more peace knowing the opportunities we agree to are plans outside of our own understanding. Our itineraries for our lives we so rigidly plan imply we are God and push aside His better judgment for our lives.

Don't get me wrong, I believe our desires are God-given. But it's in these rigid plans for the next 10 years that we find less room for failure. In this case, plans that don't work according to our plans aren't necessarily failure; they're more so just paths that lead to other paths.

Don't have a plan, live in each moment without anticipation of the next, and find the unexpected joy in the trials.