Somehow, I'm here already. No one tells you how fast years go by when you grow up, but here I am; a sophomore in college, two years removed from high school graduation and two years away from walking into the real world.

Somehow, I'm twenty years old. I've always heard about how your twenties are supposed to be the best years of your life, but didn't everyone tell me that about college? Now the college years are halfway over, and the "good" years are going as fast as they came.

And somehow, as the end of this school year is fast approaching, I find myself looking back at the last two years.

Going to college was always some faraway concept to me; it was too grown-up to think about while I was sitting in a high school classroom. Then it wasn't so far away, and soon I was packing up my childhood bedroom to move into a dinky dorm with a person I didn't know. It was so foreign that I almost couldn't even imagine it.

But we all adjust, and I adjusted well. I remember thinking about how lucky I got with the friends I had met at the school I went to. The thought that most often crossed my mind was that I never, ever wanted college to end; it's a thought I still think often.

Here's the thing about the halfway point of this crazy college journey: by this point, you are so wildly different than who you were when you came into college and you're grateful for it. Freshman year you walk in, eyes wide, still a teen, maybe a little self-conscious and a lot homesick. But by now, you've got the hang of it. You've experienced a little heartbreak, a lot of the best nights of your life, and have gained friends you know you will have forever. There have been times where you have been lost and in the dark, and where all you wanted to do was go home. You got through it, though. You're here.

I've found that reaching the halfway point brings with it a bittersweetness I can't shake. I'm grateful for the years I've had, excited for the two years to come, but sad that they're coming so, so fast.

There will be a time in the next two years when my friends won't be down the hall or in the next room for spontaneous gossip sessions and late night drives for milkshakes. For now, however, I'll take those nights and days and moments as they come; fully in the moment and as much as I can.