Another year has passed. Boyfriends have come and gone, parties have been attended, and growing up has occurred. When I embarked upon my sophomore year of college I was convinced I had my life and the entire world figured out. As far as I was concerned I was 19, single, strong, and smart.

I have had ups and downs, I have laughed and I have cried, I have been happy and I have been sad. Through it all I have had the best possible people in my life, right beside me. I look back on this year and realize that each of us has had difficult struggles but we have been there, supportive of each other the entire time. I thought I knew what love and happiness was when I started this year, but it is only with the completion of the year that I realize I never truly had any idea.

We come to college in order to learn, what we find is we learn how to live. It is with the end of this year that I realize college will teach me more than I had expected. It is now for the first time in my life I realize what true deep love of a person means. It is now that I realize the past people in my life whom I thought I truly loved and cared about were people I merely liked. I have realized that love is having your best friends sit with you in silence when your boyfriend has broken up with you. I have learned that love is two friends dropping what they are doing to see you when your grandmother passes away. I have learned that love is driving around to insanely loud Shania Twain music after eating ice cream. Love is getting out of bed at three in the morning to walk a friend home. I have learned that love is something deep within a person. Love is sitting in a room and smiling because certain people are around you.

I went into this year believing I had everything figured out. We go to class every day with the expectation that new knowledge will be imparted upon us, what we find is: the most important knowledge we gain is what happens outside of class with others.

We begin to put to use the knowledge we gain in our classes in our real lives. We form bonds with people and through them begin to create who we are. People often speak about finding yourself while in college-figuring out who you are. The truth of the matter is we begin to build who we are. We build our relationships, and we build ourselves.

I went into this year believing I had myself and the world figured out, I leave this year knowing I do not. Instead I end this year with a foundation of self-hood.