I’m halfway through my first semester of college. What? There is a part of me that feels as though I’ve spent a lifetime here and another part of me that remembers move-in day like it was yesterday. But now that I’m here and settled in, I realize that I wouldn’t have survived my first couple of months without certain people in my life.

Of course I wouldn’t have made it without my parents and family back home. I know, I know that sounds super cliché, but it’s true. I followed in my siblings’ footsteps with my college choice, so I have to thank them for that. And obviously my parents have been influential in every step of my life. They accept me as the crazy person that I am (and not always just because they feel obligated to). They’ve encouraged me to do what I want with my life, and so here I am.

Next up we have my friends back home. I have countless friends that I have been there for me through a lot and who I have made so many memories with. They are the people that I can tell anything to and know that they won’t judge me too hard. Even though we’re all spread out in different places I know that once we see each other again we’ll be able to pick up right where we left off. I’m grateful for that. I love texting and Facetiming them and just catching up on life; I feel like these interactions have helped me to not get homesick during this new experience.

Finally, I have some people who have directly made college unforgettable so far. The friends that I’ve made during these first few months of school have become so close to me and I wouldn’t trade them in for the world. They’re always up for vent session as we all complain about boatloads of work. They never fail to give me "the look" in class when the professor says something that we find even remotely funny. They get just as excited as I do when I see a dog on campus. And we’re all super content spending our weekend nights watching movies (mostly Disney movies) into the wee hours of the morning.

So here’s a thank you to all of these people who have helped me along the way. Regardless of if you’ve known me since birth or we just met within the last month or somewhere in between, you have all played an influential part in surviving college so far.