Here it is. The first week of classes. Where I am entering my final year as a student—yes, that means I am not planning on grad school. Why? What on earth would I do with a Masters? No, I do not know what I will be doing in a year’s time, and that is okay with me.

I’m not sure how many times I held that conversation this summer, and it never really varied. Always: where are you going, what year, what are you studying, and the ever dreaded what are you going to do after you graduate? Everyone’s college experience is different. Classes, struggles, free-time, jobs, extracurriculars all vary greatly, but at some point you are going to be down, and that is just life. Here are five of my favorite quotes to help me get through.

1. “And now that you don’t have to be perfect you can be good.” –John Steinbeck.

Steinbeck is one of my favorite authors that I read in middle and high school. I find so much hope in this statement. Everyone sins, everybody make poor decisions, but nobody is perfect, we all have faults, but as long as we are inherently good that stuff doesn’t matter.

2. “It’s not hard to make decisions once you know what your values are.” – Roy E. Disney

Every day, we are faced with decisions that may be easy or not. But every time you are staring down a difficult one, do not blink—reflect on yourself and go back to your core values and how your decisions will affect them.

3. “Be who you are and say how you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who don’t mind matter.” –Dr. Sues from the Cat in the Hat

It is hard to not care what others think about us. We are constantly bombarded with images of being perfect, how to mold your personality to get the guy, or girl, and that there is this kind of ideal personality. Screw it. Sometimes we all need a little reminder from our favorite childhood poet that things like that don’t matter.

4. “A happy soul is the best shield for a cruel world.” –Atticus

I am a mostly optimistic person, it’s no fun to go through life seeing things half-empty. I don’t like to think that the world is cruel, but you cannot deny that bad things happen.

5. “Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it much better to be killed by a lover.” –Charles Bukowski

I love the written word and how a varying combination of 26 letters can make you comprehend and experience a myriad of emotions. Especially when they are so eloquently structured you cannot help but fall in love. This quote does so much for me. I am an all-in kind of girl, my passions are what I focus on, so Bukowski is speaking into my soul with this gorgeous quote. I feel like this might be one of the most important things to do in life. Find what you love to do and give it your all. Conquer the world doing what you love.

Go forth and do what you are going to do, whether that is down a well mapped path, blazing your own trail or bumbling along in the dark. You know your destination, or at least have a vague idea what continent it is on, but I hope these quotes will help you out.