Recently over spring break, a group of friends and I traveled to relax on the untouched beaches of Anguila; we snorkeled, paddle boarded, fried our skin, and did other typical beach activities. But then something funny happened. As we looked over our balcony at the sun setting we began to think about how six incredibly different girls, from all over the map, who met just a few months ago all ended up on vacation in another country together. Could it be fate?

If I would have asked my high school self what I expected out of college, I would never have guessed that it would have brought me to these strangers that are now my best friends. To me, it was all a blur. One minute you meet for the first time in a dining hall, during recruitment, or in class and the next you can't imagine a time where they were not a part of your life. Yes, I believe that certain people are brought into our lives for a specific reason. And, yes, I do also believe that more often than not, you find those exact people in college.

When you are in high school, you are able to go home and eat meals with your family, to sleep in your own bedroom and, basically, do your own thing. In college, you are constantly surrounded by people who quickly become your roommate or sorority sister; those you eat every meal with, whom you share a bedroom with, whom you do everything with.

I used to consider myself a person who liked a considerable amount of privacy; I didn't mind being alone and I still don't. But that's exactly the point -- I don't want to be alone anymore. These people are the main characters in my life's story; they make me who I am and without them I can honestly say that I do not know where I would be.

So here's the real question. How did six girls from all over the country end up in a house in Anguilia? Well, it's something I like to call, "the fate of college." It's a simple theory, really: once you leave the home you grew up in, the home that knows you better than anyone else, people are brought to you in all sorts of ways to remind you a little bit of what a home truly is.

A home is not your old high school soccer trophies or the pictures you taped up on your bedroom wall; a home is the people that fill it. In college you will meet friends that will each remind you a little bit about a different part of home. You have the friend who brings you chicken noodle soup and scratches your back when you are sick; that friend will give you a little piece of your mom. Then there is the friend that is a know-it-all" in the best way possible; they will always know what to do in any situation, even if it is tough love. This friend brings you a little piece of the strongest and gentlest person you know -- your dad. There are friends who will bring out your wild side, friends who will lay in bed with you all day, and friends that will stick with you through anything. These friends are your family.

When it comes down to it, the fate of college turns out to be pretty simple. In college, you will meet people -- all sorts of people that create an entirely new type of home. A type of home that has seen you grow, cry, laugh to the point of tears and conquer a whole pizza solo in one night.

So, to you seniors in high school, you aren't just coming to college to make friends and go to frat parties; you are coming to college to find the people that, together, will be your new home and your new family. Now don't get me wrong, your old high school bedroom will still be there waiting for you to come visit. But you will soon come to question how you ever felt at home without the people you will meet your freshman year in college.