Every year I was plagued by the same worry: How am I going to make it through this new challenge?

Somehow, though, I did. Every time.

In third grade I wondered how I was ever going to make it through learning long division. Seventh grade was how I would survive pre-algebra and biology. Junior year it was crying over a chemistry test I had once again failed (I barely made it through that one) and my breakup from a boy who meant a great deal to me at the time. Senior year I wondered how I would fare after 15 years of being in grade school. Would I be that person who peaked in high school? Would I ever discover what I was really meant to do in life?

Now, as a senior in college I stare blankly ahead into a huge world with so many unknowns. Fears I never had during high school; dreams having just recently emerged, too far to grasp yet, but close enough to see.

What will I be? Where will I go? Who will I meet?

Truth be told, I am scared. Even with every obstacle I have conquered and all the blessings I have been showered with since falling head first into the perfect major and jobs, I am asking myself the same question I have asked myself my entire life: How am I going to make it through this new challenge?

I look back and see all my losses and triumphs. Lost dreams and new ones. Prayers I am glad were never answered and prayers that I still pray today. Things I have learned the hard way and others I still have to learn.

I look forward and see many paths before me. But which do I take? Where, what or who will it lead me to?

The answer is: I don’t know. I don’t know what job I will have come Christmas-time. I don’t know where I will live. I don’t know who I’ll be with.

I do know that just like every year before I’ll take a deep breath and remind myself: Everything I have done up to this point has prepared me for the next step I am about to take.

And then I take that step and I make it. Every time.