In 8 days, I will be moving into the dorms for the very first time, starting my first year as a college student. Swiftly transitioning from a graduated High School student to a College student, I get to decide who I will be and how I plan on getting there. I have been dreaming about moving into my first dorm for as long as I could remember. It is a point I never expected I would reach, a push to keep going through those long 4 years of High School - knowing that this pointless drama and dull & uninteresting classes on subjects I don't particularly care for, is temporary and the future was coming. I am able to do anything and be anything I could possibly dream of. I spent High School in the comfort zone, and I'm not letting myself do that in college. I'm ready to thrive.

High Schools soul purpose, for me at least, was showing me how boring life can be in the comfort zone…the safe zone. I am not spending thousands of my parents money to go to school only to sit back and play it safe, I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not, I’m going to talk to and be with the kind of people I want to be around, I’m going to push myself as far out of my comfort zone as possible. I'm excited to learn as much as possible, on topics I'm genuinely interested in. I’m going to a school that I know cares about my individual success, my goals, my dreams...which is a foreign concept. I’m going to take college by storm, and I’m going to succeed. I’m going to be the person I've always dreamed of becoming.

"The world is your oyster"...so cliché that it hurts me a little to say that, but it truly is. The moment I put my boxes into my Mom's luxurious Mini-Van and drive away, is the very moment that I start this next journey and make plenty of decisions...some right and some wrong. But all I know, is that I can be as big or small as I want and it is up to me which I choose. The only person that could hold me back, is myself. It's not the end, this really is only the beginning.

So here is the beginning of my future. The first move, where I start the next chapter of my life the way I decide. And I can go anywhere from here. I'm packing up my bags, with not only items necessary for my survival (Top Ramen and fruit snacks) but I'm bringing my drive and hunger to become something amazing - something I never imagined for myself.

The world seems so vast -- full of endless possibilities and opportunities.

The world seems so large from where I am.

And it is.