As the senior year of college fast approaches, I am reflecting on the fact that this is my last summer in the blissful place that I call “the college bubble.” I have grown quite comfortable in the bubble because it is a world in which I have nothing to worry about besides classes and what food is being served in the dining hall for dinner. While right now these seem like huge concerns, I realize that in a year I will be worrying about graduate school, finding a place to live, an internship, and even a job after.

This is my last “no strings attached” summer where I can travel because I want to and the last summer where I know that I will be returning to Wheelock Colleges campus in the fall.

Over the last three years, I have complained about college. I’ve complained about noisy residence halls, finals week, dining hall food, dirty bathrooms and the occasional fire alarm in the wee hours of the morning. But now that I think about it, living on my own, doing all my own cooking and cleaning makes me worry. It makes me worry that maybe I am not as ready for the real world as I once thought I was. It makes me worry that my $50,000 tuition doesn’t ensure my personal and professional success. However, it does make me realize that perhaps a piece of paper earned doesn’t ensure anything.

I am flawed and I am going to make mistakes no matter what a piece of paper says. I could graduate with a 4.0 GPA and still have no idea how to properly fill out an I-9 form or even how to successfully use a tide stain stick to get that stain out of my favorite shirt. I have realized that the sooner you realize that no one is immune to stupid mistakes and moments of insecurity, life sure becomes a whole lot easier.