My freshman year is coming to a close. And everything was more than I ever imagined or wished it would be. I met amazing professors, many new friends, wonderful mentors, and I simply had the time of my life this first year. I did not think that everything would end up meaning so much to me. I knew that I wanted to leave California when I was applying for colleges, but I was not aware of how much of an impact this decision would have on me. I was quite sad knowing that I had to leave my home where I grew up for the first 18 years of my life, but I knew that getting out into the unknown was going to help me and open my eyes to new things.

Leaving was more emotional than I thought, I cried when my family had to leave me in Chicago and it took me a day or two to get adjusted to the idea of not having my family or anyone or anything that was familiar around me all the time. This adjustment didn't quite finish settling in, even right now, for me. But I've learned the importance of family, and how much I used to take them for granted. The cliche saying of how one only knows about the importance of something after it's been taken away from them, and I learned that this year getting away from home, family and the familiar.