Before I graduated college, I went to four different schools. Two universities, and two community colleges. It took me six years to graduate, when it only took some of my high school friends four.

Would I change anything? Even to this day, I don’t know the answer.

I do know that each environment taught me something different. I know that the breaks I took were necessary— the results of mental health struggles I’d been trying to keep bottled up for far too long. I know that I made new friends and embraced new opportunities everywhere I went.

I also know that I didn’t become a different person by going to different schools, even though a part of me used to hope I would. When I finally got to the school I wanted to graduate from—the University of Texas at Austin—I remember feeling so sure that a new chapter of my life was beginning. I was ready to become the person I always wanted to be, and being on that campus would help me do it.

I did learn a lot at UT. I made friends, faced challenges, and was pushed out of my comfort zone. But I wasn’t fundamentally changed in the way that I thought I would be. I was the same person, with the same struggles, in a new environment where I had to face them in order to progress in life.

Throughout the years, I’ve learned that I’ll always have to face those struggles, no matter that. Changing your environment has many benefits— it allows you to see more of the world, meet new people, and try new things. But the old saying is true: wherever you go, there you are. If you really want to make a change in your life, you have to start from the inside.