These past four months have been difficult, stressful, exciting and amazing all at the same time. I’ve failed, I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve grown immensely through it all. I went to college expecting an easy transition after moving eight hours away and deciding to double major.

What I was greeted with was three midterms every 5th, 10th and 15th week of the semester with finals the 16th week. Needless to say, those first round of midterms kicked my ass and left me disappointed, which is totally normal for my first college exams. After that wake-up call, I started spending all my free time buried under mounds of homework and studying for upcoming exams ahead of time.

I learned that the pre-med life meant that if I wanted to get anywhere, I’d be sitting in the library until 1 AM after spending a total of six hours there that day. I’d study until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer until I physically couldn’t bring myself to look at my chem binder for a straight three days after the exam without getting a headache.

I remember walking right back up to the library the next morning just to drill information into my head before almost having a meltdown on exam day, because all I could think was, “I need to do well on this. There is no other option.” So that’s what I did.

I learned to live with this insane drive to study day and night so I would remember that feeling of success when I improved my second exam score by 10 points. It’s how I knew that I could do this. That I would do it all over again to get what I want, to think, “If I keep this up for four years, that medical school acceptance letter will have my name written at the top and that white coat will be mine.”

So what’s going to stop me? I’ve survived the worst of it, I pushed through homesickness, I didn’t go home for three months, didn’t see my close friends for two months and only saw my parents twice before the semester ended. All of this has taught me be strong, dedicated to what I do and independent, which has changed me for the better.

So here’s to one semester down and many more years to come.