With my college career halfway done, I've looked back on these past two years and seen incredible change, both positive and negative. College is a time of learning, inevitable change, and growth worth reflecting on.

As the year came to an end I was filled with excitement at the thought of going home to my comfortable bed, home cooked meals, and not having to use shower shoes, but somewhere in these happy thoughts was dread and fear. You will find your niche and have good friends in college, but going home brings about a different story in the realm of friendship. The sad fact is that not all your friends from high school you kept in contact with through your freshman year will still be in your life. In this case, the amount of friends doesn't matter because every relationship is different along with the way people keep in touch.

Time does funny things to people, bringing about change and differences in your life. These changes can make you less inclined to talk to certain people you used to be close to in the past or may lead you to not know what to say anymore. You begin to realize that some people weren't meant to stay in your life, while others were. The friends that stay in your life through thick and thin, through the crazy changes of college, are the ones you should never let go of. The beauty of friendship, I have learned, is that there are friends you barely talk to, but can still pick up where you left off. The random run-ins with people can be incredibly awkward, but that's okay, life is awkward sometimes. Interests change, people change, and sometimes that means losing the closeness between you two. Being away from home and those you were close to in high school really does cause change in a friendship, but in the end, it will all be okay.

College is a time of inevitable change, especially academically. It's a time to truly find yourself, to try new things, find new hobbies, and discover your calling. I started off as a bioengineering major on the pre-med track in the hopes of changing the world. After not so pretty grades and doing pretty well in a 400-level Asian history course freshman year, I found my calling as an Asian Studies major with a double minor in Anthropology and History. You won't necessarily do a complete 180 like I did, but change happens even within your major. Your focus may change or you may discover more reasons to pursue your passions. You may find yourself minoring in something completely unrelated to your major or double majoring in two completely different fields.

With this, it is also important to understand that it's okay to change your interests, to find failure in something you thought was meant for you, because in the end you'll find the right path that leads you to academic success and happiness. You never know what life will bring you to! While some majors may not allow for a crazy amount of experimenting outside the field, I'm looking at you, engineers, and your crazy course loads. When you have the chance, it's worth taking a leap of faith and trying something new.

The first half of my college career taught me an incredible amount about long distance friendships, keeping people in my life, and the crazy world of majors, minors, and all the resources available to college students. While you may not necessarily agree with me, in the end there's no denying that with college comes inevitable change whether it is positive, negative or neutral.