College is a fast four years. The day you waited for with an anxious heart -- Move-In Day -- arrives, but suddenly you close your eyes for a second and you’re a senior. Without even realizing it, you’re in your sixth, seventh or maybe your eighth semester. You didn’t know it back then, but you’ve spent almost four years making memories, learning who you are, making and losing friends and learning a little something in the classroom too. Without thinking twice about it, you’re smack-dab in the middle of senior year, and you’ve realized things have changed immeasurably.

Upon realizing things are different, you start to wonder when -- when did you start thinking it was more fun to read a book and try a new recipe on a Thursday instead of going to the bar? When did you begin using your free time to go to career services and update your resume? When did you wake up in the morning thinking about the amazing city you researched last night instead of with a pounding headache? When did everything change? This initial reaction is panic. Have you completely lost sight of who you are? This isn’t like you: the real you loves being surrounded by a crowd and hates to miss a Thursday night. The real you doesn’t have any direction and plans to just let the tides of time carry you through life. The real you is more “fun” than this. Then it will all hit you: this is the real you.

You realize the “when” of all these changes don’t matter; only that they have happened. Then comes the calming thought that every wrong twist and turn you took earlier in college was just a stepping stone to get you to this point. You become more comfortable in your skin and more confident in your choices. You realize it doesn’t matter who you were three years, three months or even three minutes ago. The epiphanies you’re having now would have rocked your world when you came to college and you wouldn’t have been ready to accept them -- that’s why everything changes faster than you think you’re ready for. This is who you are now, and that is what matters. Like a snake shedding its skin, you have to adjust to a new normal. Once you do this you’ll realize the person you are now is a much better representation of who you really are. Time has done its job to smooth out the rough edges, bumps and bruised you collected your first few years in college.

If you’ve let experiences from the past few years harden your heart, this is the perfect chance to let it all go. Don’t let the dangerous thought of “It’s all going to be over soon and I’ll be leaving this place” make you bitter. Use this time of intense transition to find out who you really are, let go of what you need to and become who you want to be. Don’t look back and think about the past with the sadness of knowing it can’t come back. Yes, everything has changed and you’ll never be the same -- and I think that is the most beautiful thing.