Each school year brings about new memories, new friends, and of course, new challenges. As we approach the close to the fall semester, I would like to take a brief moment to reflect upon such things and the things which I have learned from my fall semester of my sophomore year.

I began this semester eager to leave California and to began a new life in Big Sky Country, my 4-year dream. New faces, a new campus, and new temperatures were quick to excite me. However, reality soon settled in and I was faced with hardships. I very became sick, several times, emotionally drained, and heartbroken.These things really began to take a toll on my body. I was quite discouraged at times and I wanted to be around familiar faces, faces who loved and appreciated me. Old nightmares began creeping back into my mind and I began enveloping a victim mentality. Though it is absolutely beautiful here, people were not as kind as I presumed.

Later in the semester, though, I did meet some pretty amazing people and now I am looking forward to next semester. I learned that perhaps it is not where you are that makes you happy, its who you are. You can't run from yourself and I was expecting everything bad in my life to vanish when arriving at Montana. I learned that I will also never "arrive" in life, I will always continue to grow. Though the semester was much more difficult that I had intended, it was necessary for me to wake up and realize important things about myself. Because of this, now I can enter the spring semester with a more optimistic attitude. Sure there will be new challenges for me to face but it will not get the best of me. Nonetheless, I am thankful for this semester as it has made me a much stronger person.

My advice for people struggling in school whether it is social, personal, or academic...do not give up, there are better times ahead, always.