Ask yourself: What is your best kept secret? What's the one thing that keeps you moving, drives you, motivates you to be a better you than you were yesterday? Can you answer that question within the next few seconds? I can; however, if you'd asked me a few months ago, I can't say that I could have.

Often I think of a happy place, whether it be my favorite beach house in SeaSide, my study table on the third floor of McCool, or my bed at home. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, and envision myself in one of these soothing environments. Ultimately, the goal of this process is to relax, ease my mind, or put my head in a more positive place. Sometimes this helps, and other times it doesn't. In the past, I had a tendency to let stress overcome me. Surprisingly, my stress level has gone down since I've been in college. I attribute this to my best kept secret, or my happy place. I'm beyond lucky to have something so constant and strong to lean on—instead of a place, I have people. People who understand me a little bit better than I understand myself. I have adopted the most genuine people into my inner circle. And what's even better, is that they have adopted me right back.

I attach myself easily to others. In the past, I like to think this was because I was naive, but these days it is simply because the people I love love me right back. In my opinion, there is nothing better than being appreciated for your entirety. I'm learning from my classmates, sisters, friends, and fellow bulldogs that friendship and relationships are about sacrifice and acceptance.

If you haven't seen "The Perks of Being a Wildflower," then I strongly suggest you do, and if you have, you're familiar with the saying, "We accept the love we think we deserve." I find this to be increasingly true because at this new stage in my life, I have no excuse to form relationships that I do not deserve. This may sound selfish, but it is applicable to all of our lives. In college, new relationships are created, often from scratch. Whether friendships are built off of similarities, common interests, shared classes, or even mutual friends, they are made because we built them. We can no longer use the excuse, "I've known them since we were in kindergarten, I have to like them." The time is now to make the companionships we will have for the rest of our lives, and when we choose these relationships, we choose what we truly believe we deserve. That being said, how do we determine what we deserve? And who is to say some deserve more or less than others? In my opinion, we deserve the happiness we share with others.

Happiness is a give and take type of thing. I don't believe that anyone is truly happy until they learn that more happiness is obtained from giving than receiving. This has become ever more true in my life at Mississippi State. I am happier than I have been in a long time, and it is because of the special, dear company that I have adopted into my life. For one of the first times, I see more joy in what people do for each other than ever before. This campus is overflowing with love and compassion, one of the many reasons I fell in love with maroon and white.

Call me crazy, but I’d take 8 a.m.’s for the rest of my life and study until the crack of dawn every night of the week if it meant I could spend the rest of my life in God’s country with the most genuine people on the planet. I’ve fallen in love with Mississippi State for many reasons, but first and foremost, the people. I'm blessed to live in my happy place, but blessed beyond measure to have even greater company. We all we got, we all we need.