Walking through campus, anticipating my last few weeks here at UIC, I can’t help but reminisce all the memories I made here and the lessons I have learned.

This is it, my undergraduate years are almost over.

I walked in as an eager freshman coming from the suburbs, excited to explore city life. My eyes were shining like stars in the sky, I couldn’t believe in I was in college. I had a perfect vision of how it was going to go: 4.0 GPA, great group of friends, and passionate about my major with an incredible job lined up right after graduation 4 years down the road.

I wish I could go back in time and tell myself that college isn’t as magical as it seems to be in the movies or how we imagine it to be.

There were some ups and downs throughout this journey.

While making memories were great and ones I will remember for a lifetime, I also learned a lot about myself and the world around me.

Growing up in the small suburbs, everyone is friendly, helpful, and we all knew each other.

Coming to the city, I realized that not everyone is friendly, people are busy, and you basically don’t know anyone unless you go out of your way to make the effort.

Everyone is trying to get to where they have to go and if that means being mean to people, then so be it. I wasn’t sure if this was a part of growing up, or we all just start to be more selfish as we get older.

In high school, we are surrounded with the same people we grew up with so we are pretty familiar with who is around us. However, in college, not only are you in a new location, you are surrounded with new faces.

I came into college as a naïve freshman, I trusted everyone a little too fast. I thought the first people I started talking to were going to be my friends for the rest of my four years here; just like in high school. Boy, was I wrong.

No big deal right? I would learn not to do that again, but I slowly started to realize that as each semester passed by, I kept trusting people too fast only to end up in sticky situations.

My bubble was shattered from my mentality of high school. Coming from a small town, everyone knew everyone, secrets were kept and promises would always follow through.

Coming to the city, I realized that as we get older, people start to change and not everyone has the same intentions as you. People seem to do things that only benefit themselves and you have to be careful who you trust and open up to. If you don't watch your back, it's going to be hard surviving in this crazy fast-paced city life.