Pure happiness, something that seemed so convincingly unattainable. We can be happy for so long but then somewhere somehow the happiness becomes lost. Sometimes faking it until you make it for happiness works, but that is only sometimes. The feeling of pure happiness is so worth the wait though.

I can honestly say that as a senior in college I finally know what pure happiness feels like. Knowing that I will not be returning to Merrimack next year makes me so unexplainably sad while at the same time feeling content. Just know how much you love your friends but also knowing and understanding that things go on. We all grow up and are entering into "real" world finally. I am so unbelievably proud of my friends and myself for making it through all the shenanigans that have occurred at Merrimack College.

We stayed up studying late torturing ourselves for a piece of paper that will be hung in a frame one day. We dealt with the drama of friends and relationships, a shoulder to cry on, or even laugh until we were crying. My friends are the reason that I have found true and pure happiness. It is because of them that all of the torturous nights were worth it, the times when I didn't think I was going to make it, or even the ones that we don't remember. Reminiscing on weekend mornings with the people that have been there through thick and thin and loving every second of it is why I am truly happy.

Finding your niche in college is hard, you go through a great amount of BS but then when you have finally found it, you know. You know that when you need someone there is indefinitely more than one person that has your back. Regardless of what you need there is someone to turn to, that is when you know you've found your niche.

So content with where I am at in my college career knowing that I have great friends, a great education, and a job after I walk across that stage to get my diploma. I never thought I would feel this way at the end of four years but the truth is I do. It may sound so weird to say that at 22 years old but that is genuinely where I am at.

Thank you to my friends, my family, my professors, and faculty/staff at Merrimack for making this place so hard to leave but so worth the debt that I will be in six months from now. As the payments come every month for the next 10 years I am going to write down at least one memory that I had making it all worth it. Thanks for the memories and helping me to realize what pure happiness felt like. I hope that at the end of your four years where ever you are that you get to feel this same feeling.