This year was one I was anticipating for what feels like my entire life. My first year of college. The start to a new chapter in my life that for so long has felt so far away. It was scary at first for sure. Living on my own for the first time, living with people who aren't my family for the first time, living in a new city for the first time, and just dealing with all the aspects of being a college student for the first time. So many firsts wrapped up in one year.  It felt like I was off at summer camp for the first few weeks, feeling like I would be heading back home any day now, but days turned into weeks and weeks into months and before I knew it about nine months had passed. 

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A big part of college that I was anticipating my entire life was the roommates. Living with people that were practically strangers has always been intimidating. Always worried that I wouldn't match well with my roommates and having to go back to the dorm wouldn't be a relaxing, calming thing at the end of the day and instead a stressful inconvenience. Luckily for me it worked out better than I could have imagined and my roommates became some of my best friends. Having such good roommates made my entire year so much better and when I was stressed with school it was always good to have them to go back to. 

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It was a work load unlike any I have had in the past. I had to learn how to prioritize things in my life and organize my schedule and be more considerate about my time. Letting assignments wait until later was no longer an option as I had to spends days to complete a project. There were many times I wanted to just give up. It felt like I was putting in so much work for no reward, but at the end of the year as I was going through sketchbooks and finishing up my final projects I was able to see that I had actually made growth. Which made it all worth it and allowed me to see just why I was pursuing something I am passionate about. 

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I had to learn how to be confident in myself and my decisions. I couldn't doubt my abilities, even though I was always wanting to, because I had to be confident in my abilities and my work as I was presenting my art to my classmates and professors. Everyone around me was talented and sometimes it felt like they were far more talented than me, and that I didn't belong there. I had to always tell myself that I belonged there too and that maybe I did have a little more catching up than some people but I was capable of getting better. Learning to be confident in my abilities was a difficult thing to do and I am still working on it and getting better with it.

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