As soon as I was away at college and out from under the eyes of my parents, I spent countless hours, days and nights with my high school boyfriend of nearly two years. We went to different colleges only five minutes apart. I had my own dorm room on my campus, but I would commute back and forth just so I could spend every night sleeping next to him. It felt as if his room was more mine than my own. It wasn't until September of my sophomore year that I realized everything I had given up just to be with him. After an awful breakup, I lost a lot of sleep but gained new insight.

I wasn't myself when I was with him. I had given up my individuality. The girl I was before was more independent. The girl I had become couldn't sleep alone. I could no longer make a decision — whether it was about what color I should dye my hair to what I should declare as my major — without consulting my boyfriend. It's not that he was controlling. It's that I would have done anything to please him, because I wanted us to work. I wanted us to have a future.

Blinded by love, I made decision after decision that made me exclusively available to him. I did not take the time to make new friends. I was not as involved with my sorority as I could have been. I never took the chance to become close to my sisters during that long first semester of pledging. I had only been to one party at my own college by the time my freshman year was over. I had eaten in my own cafeteria less than ten times the whole year. I didn't go to the homecoming game or any of the tailgates. I didn't experience freshman year like most students do. I did not take the opportunities offered to me like I should have.

I don't regret any of my choices because I have learned from every single consequence. I accept that I can't go back and change the past, but I will definitely choose where I go from here. I choose to never become so dependent upon someone. I choose to take every opportunity given to me, and to make the most of them. And most importantly, I choose to make myself happy. I forgot to mention, having a bed all to yourself isn't so bad after all.