I have started to notice that life isn’t just a straight and flat path.

There are numerous turns. There is a bridge that looks like it is about to break with a tap of a finger but you have to cross it. There are dead ends and you have to go back about a mile or two to find a different path. There are numerous mountains you have to climb, but then you can slide down them freely.

Whenever I think about this, I immediately think about Robert Frost’s poem. You know, The road less traveled. I used to love this poem. I think everyone thinks it is relatable, and that is what I thought until college. At college, you are among many others who have the same majors as you and you feel no different. You are not on the road less traveled. You are on the road where there are countless footsteps that cover the ground.

While there are these two roads, I believe there is a third. This weird path full of hills and dead ends and bridges and turns. I recently met a dead end and as I tried to go back to where I started, I took some weird turn and was introduced to a massive Mount Everest-like mountain of transfer essays and working every day to be a strong applicant in the transfer pool.

And then after that mountain, I was greeted with a wobbly bridge full of finals and internship applications for my summer plans. I finished passing this bridge just yesterday, actually. All of my finals are over and now I feel like I am back where I started.

I am saying this only because it is wonderful to take any path. You can take the road that others have been on. You can take the road less traveled. Or you can make your own path.

The last one is the one where I continuously failed and had to bring myself up again. However, through this process, I realized how much I underestimated myself. I had no idea I could work as hard as I did. I had no idea how frustrated I could become. How happy I could become for accomplishing something. I definitely underestimated my abilities.

There were some people here who made it truly difficult for me to get back to the beginning, maybe even created some mini-mountains on my Mount Everest. With all of this being said, a lot of people here made it easier for me to climb the huge mountain and cross the bridge.

I am forever grateful for them and sad to leave such a wonderful group of people. I wished I had more time with them because one year, let alone one semester is too short. And goodbyes are not my strong suit. Within the next couple of days, I hope my company will be enough.