It is now fall of my senior year, a time that I thought I was not going to ever want to happen. Surprisingly, I have very quickly found closure in the idea of moving on, and I feel ready for the real world, ready for a fresh start.

As I look back to only a few weeks ago I remember thinking, “What will I do without this place, without the safety net of college? What will I do without my friends, without my sorority?” It didn’t take me long to soon realize that this time, these four years have been everything I have wanted them to be, and now, it’s time to move on. And shockingly, when I realized that in just two short semesters this will all be over, I was okay with that.

I don’t know if that’s normal for people to feel like this, especially since you usually hear college seniors dreading the end that is so near. But I know I took a minute to think about all the new possibilities, and found them to be just as exciting as the past four years have been. A job, instead of school, for one- I know that it will be more work than classes, but at the same time, I have really come to realize that I am very tired of all these endless assignments for areas of study I am not interested in nor need for my future career. Also, I love the idea that now I have no tie, nothing holding me back from going anywhere in the world. This world has so much to offer that I have yet to see, and I cannot wait to get out there, move somewhere else, travel and meet new friends.

You will always have the comfort of home in the place you spent your years of college, so the idea of moving on does not have to be as scary as we all make it. I think the idea of graduating offers us all a gift that we spent four years without, which is to pick up and go find a fresh start. Go on and start a new life. Go see what the world has to offer you, whether it is just a new place of work or a completely new state to live in.

It’s okay to be nervous or scared to graduate, but I for one know that I will enjoy my senior year to the fullest and never take for granted the last few months I have here at school. However, when the day finally comes that I gather with my parents for a picture with my cap and gown, when I get handed my degree, I will be at ease knowing not only that is the president of the university isn’t just handing me a certificate of completion at the University of Central Florida, but a handful of opportunities to come as well. The world is ours for the taking, and that shouldn’t be something any of us are scared of.