Change isn't always a bad thing...

You could say that I haven't had the most normal college experience.

I started out at a military school and before my first semester was over I was forced to completely change my life plan. I had to withdraw because I needed physical therapy for my back but in the process of that one injury I had altered the next 24+ years of my life. I had been planning on getting a nursing degree and then becoming an army nurse. I love plans and it was a good plan in theory that would have had me set for life. Well, if I have learned anything in the past 4 years, it's that plans always change and while it's good and even necessary to have some plan for the general direction of your life if you resist change and are not flexible, you're going to be miserable.

The following three years were complete chaos for me as I was now back at square one and had no idea what I really wanted to do with my life. I ended up changing schools 3 more times and changing my major at least 6. You might assume that because of all of that time spent figuring out what to do with my life I would be able to answer the simple question “what do you want to do after you graduate?” easily. In reality, if you were to ask me that question today I would have to say I’m not completely sure. The difference between that answer now and that answer 3 years ago is that finally I’m okay with not having every single detail of my life planned out.

My dad always tried to pass on life lessons while we were growing up in the hope of saving us from having to learn them the hard way. I cannot tell you how many times he told me to live in the present and not linger on the past or worry about the future… the only thing that’s for certain is right now. And while that always made logical sense to me, I couldn’t stop myself from wondering how my life would have been different if I hadn’t gotten injured at Norwich. Now, I get what he’s been trying to tell me all these years. It’s not about the destination it really is about the journey. as cliché as that might sound.

I was having a hard time last semester dealing with the fact that I was losing a lot of my friends from my past and it felt like I was losing who I was because those were the people I had built my life around. As much as it may suck at the time, people are bound to come in and out of your life. Just like change is inevitable in life, people changing is unavoidable. I realize now, that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing, that I can appreciate the time they were in my life and try and learn everything I can from people who I come in contact with because you never know what they are there to teach you or when their job will be done.

I must say, for all of the friends I have “lost” or just fallen out of touch with these past couple years, I have gained so many amazing new friends here. There are honestly a few people I’ve met here who I never want to lose touch with and I cannot imagine what my life would be like if I'd never met them. It’s crazy how much of an impact a single person can have on your life and how that person always seems to find you or be found when you need their experiences to help you through your own situation.

I want to take the time to let all the people who have been in my life, regardless of how briefly, know that I have been shaped into the person I am because of my interactions with all of you. Everything happens for a reason and now more than ever I don’t want to hold grudges or place blame on anyone for a lost friendship. Life is about the people you surround yourself with. You could have the best job in the world but if you don’t have people in your life that you can trust with everything about you and who will be there without judging you then what is the point of living. We are all going to die one day, and none of us has any way of knowing when that is going to happen. When I die, it won’t matter what my financial status was in life or what kind of car or how big of a house I had, what will matter to me is whether or not I made an impact on anyone’s life and how I’ll be remembered. I want to be remembered for my trustworthiness, my integrity and my compassion for other people. You can have all the material possessions in the world but if you don’t have one single true friend, you are the poorest person on the planet.

To all my friends: Thanks for helping me become the person I am, without you my life would truly be meaningless. <3