There’s a strange feeling knowing that we’re past halfway through my final semester in college. It feels somewhere between nostalgia and anticipation. I’m surrounded by everything I once dreamed about: the friends who became family, the campus that became a second home, and the routines that I planned in my head for years. It’s bittersweet to come to terms that this chapter is ending. I’ve worked so hard to get to where I currently am, but it’s already time to say goodbye. 

College has been a timeline of milestones: first classes, first jobs, first apartments, spontaneous adventures to Ireland and beyond, and now the timeline stretches forward into the unknown. I think the scariest part of this is how the next milestones aren’t marked on a syllabus or anywhere in my planner. Instead they’re written in real life. A job offer, moving to a new city, new friends. In realizing this, it’s easy to feel like everything is ending. But it’s not truly ending. 

Because the truth is, life after college is full of firsts too. There is so much to experience beyond the bubble of class schedules and late nights in the library. I know I’ll miss the familiarity of campus life, but I’m excited to find the freedom in building something new from scratch. 

I know this transition won’t always be smooth. There will be moments of uncertainty, loneliness, and longing for what used to be. But there will also be moments of joy, growth, and gratitude when I realize that every version of myself along the way has been preparing myself for this.

With these last few weeks, I understand I’m not losing my college years. Instead, I’m carrying them forward, turning lessons into confidence, memories into motivation, and endings into beginnings. 

So here’s to the next chapter. One I get to write entirely on my own.