Thank you for being my home away from home. Moving away from home for the first time isn’t easy for anybody. It’s saying goodbye to everybody and everything at once: family, friends, jobs, your comfort zone. But you, Virginia Tech, made it easier. Because you offered me a new home. A place that came with great people, beautiful scenery, and endless opportunities. I expected to become homesick quite a bit. And of course, I would sometimes. But then, I started to become homesick in the summers and over breaks. Because I missed my new home, Virginia Tech.

Thank you for fostering a community that allowed me to grow. I came into my freshman year, unsure of where my life would take me after college. But since then, I now not only know what I want to do and am meant to do, but I am equipped with the skills and knowledge to do it successfully. I’m not just talking about all of the lessons I learned in the classroom. I’m also talking about the independence I gained. The empathy, the passion, the confidence. Everything it takes to be a successful, but more importantly, decent human being.

Thank you for giving me my people. Before coming to college, I thought I had made all of my lifelong friends; I grew up with the same people for the previous 18 years. And they were all so wonderful. But little did I know, there were just as wonderful people for me to find at Tech. I found the people that I laugh endlessly with and at, the people I have fun doing absolutely nothing with, the people that support me and love me to no end. I couldn’t thank you enough for bringing us together.

Thank you for letting me figure life out for myself. I wasn’t forced into a major or department. I wasn’t forced to be a sorority girl, an athlete, a cadet. But I was given the opportunities. I could have been a club soccer player. I could have played the saxophone in the Marching Virginians. I could have been the vice president of Students Helping Honduras. I could have studied Biology, HNFE, Computer Science, Creative Writing. I could have done whatever I wanted to do. I could have studied whatever I wanted to study. I could have been whoever I wanted to be. Thank you for allowing me to do life my way.

Thank you for being better than any college I could imagine; any college I could dream up. It’s easy to take something for granted, but as my senior year ticks away, I appreciate you now more than ever. Every time I walk around campus, every time I step into a classroom, every time the mountains give way and I see you standing tall, I am reminded. I am reminded of how incredibly lucky I am to be a student at Virginia Tech and of how much I will miss you when I’m gone.