If you'd asked me three years ago what life would look like now, I'd have offered you an idyllic, effortless, and, ultimately, entirely misinformed answer.

The truth is, four years into college, life has changed so drastically from what it was.

You're not going for late-night doughnut runs, or keeping your dorm impeccably neat, or even eating 3 meals a day. By senior year, most of us have given up on trying to piece together new outfits for class (we save that creativity for the weekends), planning meals becomes one of the most haphazard decision-making processes you face, and the classwork is more like, well, real-world work.

But, there's a beauty to this stage, too. Maybe you're like me; you've met your person, and you're getting ready to marry and start a life together. You're beginning to job shop, as life after college starts to loom in the distance. This stage of life is, in the strangest of ways, starting and finishing. There's an anxiety about taking off, stretching your legs, and leaving the familiar behind. There's an earnest anticipation about taking off, stretching your legs, and living.

Yes, there are new things, called rent and utility bills, but there's also the joy of decorating the first house that's yours.

You'll get to explore the possibilities of a world open to you as never before. The simple joy of looking forward to coming home to your spouse after a long day, or a good book with a glass of wine in the bath, or coming home to no more homework (YES.) are awaiting you, just around the slightly scary corner ahead.

For some of us, we've just welcomed new members to our families.

After becoming an aunt this winter, I've been overwhelmed with the joy of my niece and nephews' little giggles and cuddles, first sounds, and especially my Clara's infamous wiggle. To me, this is what growing to adulthood is truly about: the humbling feeling of a tiny grip around your finger as you watch another generation take your place, especially the little ones brought into the world by your family members. Realizing, even as it sinks in how far you've come, that you're still such a young person yourself, with so much growth, and experience, and life left to live.

So, here's the big bad truth of it: even at twenty-one, planning a wedding, almost finished with school, and aunt to some pretty awesome kiddos, I'm still an oversized kid, I've just learned that there's room for youth and maturity in the same world-navigating, literature-loving girl.