I have approximately 14 days left of my Freshman year at college.

Looking back on the past eight months, it's surreal to see how much I have learned, how many people have entered my life and how much I have grown. If someone would have come up to me at the beginning of August and said, “Just wait, this is going to be the greatest year of your life," I probably would have given them a puzzling glance and rolled my eyes.

The thought of going to college was absolutely terrifying to me, and I wasn’t even leaving my hometown!

When I arrived on campus, it was a sensory overload. There were giant crowds of eager students ready to pounce on me the second my car pulled up to my dorm. I was handed a room key, a student ID, a handbook, some unidentified paper to sign, met my RA, chauffeured around, given a name tag, put in an orientation group -- it was almost too much to handle within the span of eight minutes.

Then came the unpack, an ungodly experience within itself. The whole ordeal took a good two days, and I didn’t have a roommate. So when the last pillow was placed on the bed, I was left all alone in a room on a giant campus filled with people I didn’t know.

But don’t worry, college will be one of the greatest times of your life! It’s so easy to make friends.

Well yes, if that friend is your roommate, and you go out and make friends together. Then classes start. News flash: High school is over. You are no longer a senior -- you are a freshman. You don’t know where anything is or how anything works, and it can be pretty humiliating.

So for the first couple of weeks, I doubted my entire existence on the planet, and wondered why it wasn’t socially acceptable for me to live at home for the rest of my life and be provided with free food, cable and laundry.

Then something magical happened. I made friends. I asked questions. I began to learn about the world around me.

I had a freedom that I never had in high school that was addictive. I could stay up till one in the morning, and eating ice cream for breakfast once a month is totally acceptable. I began to experience life in ways that I never knew even existed.

I grew so much as a person by learning what it means to be a good friend. I’ve been able to stretch my mind and learn about the world around me in ways I never knew were possible. I’ve grown in maturity and understanding in compassion and grace.

It’s been such a life-changing year. One that I will never forget, and one that I will treasure forever.

There are less than two weeks left of my freshman year of college. I look back on the past eight months and how much my life has changed—how much I have changed—is surreal.

I think back to that first day when I moved in, and never in a million years would I have thought that this would have been one of the best years of my life.