Move-in day. Stairwells and creaky elevators crammed with too many bodies and too little oxygen. At least that’s what I can remember about it. I remember sweating enough for eight people as my parents commented every six seconds about how I seemed to have packed more stuff than anyone else who passed us by.

College. Your life is about to change. How exactly the changes will occur -- it’s too early to tell. But the change is inevitable. My first night of college, I sensed the change even before it really started happening. Walking in a herd towards my first college party, nerves bubbling up inside of me, gripping a water bottle that was filled with anything but water.

It was so different than what I was used to. So different than my sheltered home town where I knew everyone’s first and middle and last names. It was weird to suddenly be surrounded by so many people who I didn’t know. And who didn’t know me.

Maybe that’s the biggest change in college. Going from a town where everyone knows you to a school where you are suddenly just as small as you imagine yourself to be. You have a fraction of the time to make a name for yourself, to secure your friends that (you hope) will remain with you for the next four years.

But, of course, with new people come new influences. New opportunities. And no matter what, no matter how secure you feel in yourself and your beliefs, you are going to change. It’s impossible not to. You’re introduced to too many new people. You’re exposed to too many new things. Your parents lived across the hall from you for your whole life. Now all of a sudden, it’s a cute boy with messy brown hair. You used to eat ice cream and watch American idol with your mom late at night on weeknights. Now you sit in a circle with a group of almost-strangers, taking shots of cheap vodka, despite the fact that you have an 8 a.m. class the next morning. It doesn’t matter who you are. College is going to change you. And that’s OK. That’s natural. Don’t feel bad for changing. Only worry about it if you start disliking who you are becoming.

But that’s inevitable too. At some point, you are going to start disliking who college is turning you into. Maybe you are drinking too much. Maybe you are trying things that you shouldn’t. Maybe you are letting people treat you like you are worth less than you are. Maybe you have stopped caring about your future. Maybe you have stopped sticking up for yourself. Maybe it’s a combination of a lot of things. But that’s the beauty of college. Things change so fast, but we still have a say in what we let change us. Things can only influence us as much as we allow them to. So if you don’t like something, change it. College is change. Life is change. Maybe that’s the most useful way that college prepares us for our lives beyond this. The way it teaches us how to change and adapt and eventually stumble clumsily into adulthood and the people we are supposed to become.

I love college, I do. Some of my lowest points have been in college, but so have some of my highest. Lows and highs coexist. You can’t expect to reach some of your highest points without experiencing a little rock-bottom heartbreak.

And I firmly believe this: You don’t know who you are until college. You can’t. Not until everything you are has been put to the test. You can't learn what your morals are until they are questioned. You can't learn how to piece yourself back together until someone has torn you apart. College is figuring out which pieces you have to work with, and where they all fit. It's all about discovering who you really are.

But in the end, although you will question it at times, these really are the best years of your life. Even on the days when they feel like the worst. Because when else in your life can you walk down the hall in a pair of bunny slippers to hang out with your best friends at two a.m.? When else can you get pizza and fried food past one a.m. without the fear of being questioned by your parents? When else can you dress up in a hastily assembled animal costume that you purchased just a few hours prior and go HAM to “Hood Go Crazy” in a basement full of strangers?

This is college. These are your last four years to live in the bubble of pre-adulthood. Don’t pop the bubble early. Enjoy yourself. Embrace the good changes and avoid the bad.

I can admit the college ride hasn’t always been smooth for me. But looking back, there isn’t a single thing that I would change. It all made me who I am. Really.

I only wish it didn’t have to come to an end quite so soon.