To my freshman year of college:

Thank you. Thank you for the unforgettable memories filled with new friends and amazing opportunities. Thank you for building me into someone stronger and smarter and better. And thank you, most of all, for the countless lessons learned.

I’ve learned history and english and speaking and calculus.

I’ve learned about taxes and budgeting and renting and cooking.

About love and friendship and relationships and life.

I’ve learned more about myself in this last year alone than I have the last 18 years of my life.

I’ve learned about what I want and why I want it.

About what’s important to me and what’s not.

About what drives me to do better and to be better.

This last year has brought me friends that have become family; professors that have become my biggest inspirations; and, colleagues that have become supporters.

It has brought me people that I completely vested myself in... only to discover they did not feel the same; and, it has taken people from me whom I thought I would love forever.

And... I’m grateful for each and every one of them, regardless.

This year has undoubtedly helped to shape me into the person I am still in the process of becoming. It has forced me to grow. To decide what I want in a relationship; what traits I value in a friendship; what my priorities are.

And it’s been uncomfortable. Separating what I want from what my parents and other family around me want. Deciding what I am okay with in contrast to what my friends, and other students around me, believe to be acceptable.

This year has flown by faster than I ever imagined to be possible. I distinctly remember my first day of move-in: mind full of goals I hoped to accomplish by the end of the year, things I hoped to experience and memories I couldn’t wait to make.

Now that the year is done, it feels as though I’ve accomplished nothing with the exception of attending class and making a few friends; but, then I dig deeper and I realize that... although I didn’t achieve the cookie-cutter goals I originally had in mind… I’ve accomplished much, much more. I’ve become a person I am proud of, yet am continually working to improve. I am stronger. I am smarter. I am more determined than ever.

And next year? I am going to do even better.

Sincerely,

A sophomore ready to kick some serious ass.