"We made it! We made it through being allowed only two packets of ketchup at lunch for a hamburger and fries..."

Around a year ago, this is how I began the speech I was delivering to my entire graduating class and their closest family and friends. I remember being terrified, standing up there in front of my peers and so many strangers. The entire day moved so quickly, filled with many faces I haven't seen since. However, between then and now, I have met countless new friends and have fought with myself over what direction I want to go with my college career. Additionally, I have witnessed my friends from high school going through similar experiences. Going to college, we all had different ideas of where we saw ourselves after the next four years. Now, one year in, many of us have altered our goals.

In high school, we were all involved in similar activities. Many of us were members of a sports team or played an instrument in the band. Out of all of us, we attend three different in-state colleges. Starting our freshman year of college, our majors spanned from elementary education to biochemistry. After this year of growth, almost all of us have realized our calling as a teacher. One of the main lessons I have learned during my freshman year is that it's okay to change your mind about what you want to do in the future, and I hope that's a lesson all of my friends have learned as well.

College is an overwhelming experience but in the best way possible. Every cliche article written talks about how you find yourself in college, and they're right. You discover your strengths and weaknesses very early on, but also learn more about your interests. Being more independent leads to making more serious decisions on your own. This important step in our lives helps us determine our goals for later on, and how we strive to achieve them.

So, to my high school friends, I am so proud of the people we are becoming. I have had the privilege to have grown up with you since elementary school, through the bad hair-dos and the leggings-under-jean-skirt phase; every bad exam score, and every late Friday night, we have been a support system for each other. Whether it be over individual text, or gaining a laugh from a tweet one of us screenshotted, the gesture means so much. We may not talk on a daily basis or see each other for weeks at a time, but the respect we have for one another is something that takes years to build.

A year has passed since graduating high school. We all were confident we would make it this far, but our paths have taken us down roads we didn't even know existed. I'm sure even a year from now we will come closer to reaching our goals and many more doors of opportunity will be opened. We made it!