"Just know you're not alone, 'cause I'm gonna make this place your home" ~Phillip Phillips

In just three and a half months, Williamsburg, VA, has become my new home. I had that heart-warming realization this past Sunday night as I stood alongside friends watching the fireworks at the 90th Annual Colonial Williamsburg Grand Illumination. As excited as I am to return home for the holidays, I know a piece of my heart will still be here, in Williamsburg. The once unfamiliar brick and cobblestone paths that make up the College of William & Mary's campus and Colonial Williamsburg's Duke of Gloucester Street are forever ingrained in my mind. The beauty of the old brick buildings in all times and seasons is incomparable.

More importantly than the sights are the feelings. I know I am home when I am here because I never feel alone. The friends I have made in a few months seem as though I have known them my entire life. I love being surrounded by so many incredible, intelligent, friendly and fun people. There is never a dull moment and there is always something to do, even if it's just a movie in the lounge in our PJ's. I know in those moments that I belong here and I always will.

Even as finals begin this week and the studying feels overwhelming, I know I will be happy just to be here with my friends and go through it together. I can't wait to spend three and a half more years at William & Mary and make more memories with the people and in the place that remind me I am home.