One more semester to go...

As i sit here typing this, i'm embarking upon my last semester at ND as an undergrad. It's a weird moment to reflect on, because earlier today i was cleaning up my room back home in oak park when i noticed my acceptance letter among the items i was looking through. That letter made me realize how far i've come since that moment in april when i excitedly tore upon the "big" envelope sent from ND, and the resulting state of happiness and relief after reading the good news. I remember that i had all these different ideas of how college was going to unfold, and all the great things i was going to do. Looking back at my 3 1/2 years i have no real regrets on how it all broke down, the only one being i wish i would have committed to a school publication, but even that's not that big of a deal now that i think about it. The best thing about ND is the relationships i forged between classmates, roomates, dormmates, and professors. The ND community is truly a family in every sense of the word. I don't think i would have had such an enriching experience if i had gone to my other choice, Northwestern, but that's not so much a knock on the wildcats as it is a ringing endorsement for ND. Yes parietals were lame, yes the campus life is similar to a summer camp with the same-sex dorms, and yes the ND administration imposed some pretty harsh rules on the students without consulting us, but these roadblocks were not that big of a deal when it really came down to it.

The best thing i've discovered at college the past 3 1/2 years is that you don't necessarily go to college to learn (you obviously do) but you start discovering who you really are. Most of us in college were cut off from our high school safety nets of family and friends, and being out on your own was a jarring experience. It's almost like starting your life over again at 18. And despite all i've learned these 3 1/2 years, i'm only starting to scratch the surface of who i really am.

I'm getting sappy, but i really don't care at this point, i've loved virtually every minute of my college experience, and i'm glad of the friendships i've made. I only hope that the last 6 months will be a wonderful bookend to an excellent part of my life, i think that it will. It's going to be hard going to the real world, where real responsibilities and pressures reign supreme, but if i've found out anything about myself this year it's that i'm ready for anything.