I know exactly what you're thinking. I know this because I was in your position exactly a year ago.

I know you're counting down the days until the first of the early decisions come out and I know you'll be refreshing your email days before it actually gets here, just in case the decisions were sent out early.

I know that your weekends are filled with staring at your college supplements and essays, doubting every sentence, every strategic phrase and comma, as if your worth and entire future depends on these 650 words.

I know you're asked the same questions constantly by everyone you come in contact with and I know that you'll answer them with a definitive smile on your face, when really you have no clue what you're doing.

Applying to college is possibly the most stressful time of high school but the worst part isn't the actual process of applying — it's the wait. When you're writing your application, you have complete control of how you're presenting yourself and what you're doing but as soon as you press the submit button, it feels like your fate is left in the hands of the unfamiliar and overworked people that make up the college decision's committee. The wait feels like an eternity and as each night passes you dream of what it would be like to attend your dream school. It's almost as if you have a romantic affair with this university; you think you deserve to be there more than anybody else because at this point, you know their website inside and out and you've been wearing their college gear since the day you visited.

One day you won't have to wait anymore and you'll open up the email that you've been wanting to see since the moment you paid your application fees. Before you read the verdict, you'll most likely have already planned out how you're going to announce your potential acceptance on Facebook, a post similar to the ones that have been bombarding your feed as your friends get into their prestigious top choice schools.

When you do finally open up the letter, your journey can end in two ways and even though it won't feel like it at the time, both of these ensuing scenarios are completely okay. I can only imagine how ecstatic you'll be if this grueling process ends with acceptance for you, but unfortunately for a lot of us, that's not the case.

Rejection hurts.

College rejection will crush you. It'll shatter the future you imagined in your head. It'll make you question where you went wrong, why you didn't get in even though you met all the requirements for the school. It'll make you view yourself as less capable than everyone around you because you weren't good enough for this academic institution even though you thought you were. You will think that this one email, this application, this entire process defines you and decides everything and I'm here to tell you that it doesn't.

I grew up believing that if I didn't go to a cutting-edge university, if I didn't get into my top school, I wouldn't be able to be as successful as I would have been if I didn't go a highly selective and competitive college.

I thought that college rejection meant I would have to settle for less.

If I have learned anything from the two months I have been in college it's that your institution does notand never will define you. No matter where you go, you are in charge of your future and how your life will pan out. You are responsible for taking advantage of all the opportunities college gives you (and trust me, there will be a lot) and once you start college next fall, everything will fall into place.

So relax and instead of getting caught up in dread of thinking about your future for next year, enjoy every moment of senior year.

Whatever happens, I promise you that you will be okay.