As a college student who is coming to the close of her sophomore year, I can’t help but be hit with the realization that my college career is almost halfway done. How did that happen? How did these past two years fly by so quickly, and why didn’t those awkward years of middle school manage to do the same? But regardless of how fleeting freshman and sophomore year were within that whirlwind, I realize how much I have learned both in and out of the classroom. And all things I’ve managed to learn on my own.

For some of us we head off to college and know a little bit more than the rest or have a little bit of help than others. We get a helpful piece of advice from an older sibling, or we find ourselves in this brand new place with our high school bestie by our side, or we're living only a couple of miles away from home. But some of us are the first to leave the nest, and find ourselves hours away from home, going into this new crazy adventure all alone. And for me I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Sure, it’s always nice to have a heads up and have some sort of idea as to what’s around the next corner, but this also presents you with an opportunity you may not get again: a blank slate. You now have the opportunity to change yourself, meet new people, and experience things outside your comfort zone. You’ve found yourself going in blind. All of a sudden you are forced to test the waters all on your own, with no real guide or parent to tell you where to go and what time to do it. You’re on your own. Sure you can put something in the group chat asking what to do or how to do it, but in reality, the next move is all up to you. For the first time, you have nobody around you expecting you to do something a certain way because nobody expects anything from you. Nobody knows what to expect because you’re just as new to them as they are to you. You’re now given the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and walk over to the girls living across the hall and say hi, to join the club that’s peaked your interest but never joined in high school. No, you don’t have to do a total 180-degree change from the person that graduated high school, but you may find yourself to be a different person than you expected. Not knowing the “rules” of school or anybody at the school has allowed you to figure things out on your own and take pride in seeing where you have come. So as you look back over your first half of college look at all that you have done on your own. You’ve met your best friends, learned life lessons that will stick with you for years, and gained the confidence to do it all on your own. So if asked the question “What do you wish you knew before starting college?” my answer would be nothing.