I am not sure where the time has gone but my junior year is coming to an end. As I watch my graduating friends pick up their cap and gown and gather their commencement tickets, I sadly realize that I will be doing the same next June. My graduating friends are entering the workforce, serving in the Peace Corps, moving abroad and entering graduate school. Their lives seem so set yet so unpredictable.
In a year, I will finish my senior year and graduate with the Class of 2013. My eventful undergraduate life has provided me with plenty of stories to share. Life in college is an absolute nonstop rush -- a paper to finish, a meeting to catch and a project to complete. Living in Los Angeles, there is always some "LA" thing to do such as a "study at the beach" day, lunch at the farmers market or television taping fundraiser. In the past three years, I changed phone numbers, worked abroad and traveled the world. Why, in the past 10 weeks, I flew across the country and across the state. I declared a senior thesis and changed my graduation date from Winter 2013 to Spring 2013. Life in college moves at rapid speed and sometimes I wish I could just press pause to breathe.
The experiences that challenged me the most -- the ones that I desperately wanted to escape -- are the experiences that pushed me to become who I am today. Aside from my Twitter handle, declared major and trusty desk lamp, not much has remained the same since my freshman year. Looking back at the first day of college, I would have never imagined that the young, naive 18-year-old me would become the current 21-year-old me.
I was once told that to plunge into something foreign is the only way to face challenges and come face-to-face with change. The most difficult parts of my college years have been the best parts of my college life. Due to particular events, a handful of treasured human beings who entered my life and inspiring lectures given my professors, I was pushed to extend beyond my personal limits and alter my outlook on social issues and life goals.
I may fear the unknown of the end of my senior year. I do not know which city, state and country I will be in. But I am intrigued and excited for change. Most of all, I am stoked for that day in the future when I will look back at the 21-year-old me and see how much I have changed.