The summer after your senior year can give you so many different emotions. You're in this period of time where you've finished a huge chapter of your life, but you also haven't quite started your next one. You can feel excited or you mourn everything you're leaving behind at your high school and your hometown while you prepare for all the changes the fall semester is about to bring you.

The summer after my senior year consisted of a lot of the mourning, and very little of the preparing. I spent a lot of time with my friends as I knew I'd be leaving, but I was so distracted by the fun times and the quality time that it didn't hit me I was leaving until I stared at my childhood bedroom all packed up and empty.

Move-in day is absolute chaos, no matter what school you go to. You're not thinking about much of anything except getting all of your things lugged up to your room and getting it all unpacked while not being in your roommate's way. But then it hits you again as your family leaves, and your friends leave, and it hits way harder that time- at least it did for me. The rest of my move-in day consisted of meetings and a party out front of our dorm hall, which I had attended with my suite-mates. But then the might got lonely, and the first morning waking up in my dorm was the loneliest place I've ever been.

I left a lot of things behind at home. My family was going through something that was torture to watch from 100 miles away and not be able to help, and I'd come home on weekends and see how truly difficult of a time everyone was having and how much I wanted to be there to help. I reflected on my life at school and realized how much happier I could be at home, my gut was telling me something and I knew I had to listen to it- so I did.

Transferring to my local community college at home, and deciding to live at home for a little longer was the best decision I could have made for my growth. I'm grateful for the amount of growing I was able to do during my freshman year of college and I am excited to see what my future holds in the next few years.

Everyone lives are different and what people need to be the happiest version of themselves is different. I see people at huge universities thriving more than they ever have and I feel happy for them. Its all about finding the path that best suits you, and I think I have.