Hopefully your freshman year was everything that you were hoping it would be. Hopefully you made friends with not only those on your hall, but people whom you would have never expected to associate with before entering your college career. Hopefully you have made many amazing memories this past year and they are memories that you won't soon forget, I know I won't.

Hopefully you took many of the opportunities that were given to you, hopefully you were involved in your campus community and you found your niche. Look in the mirror and you will notice that you have changed; you are no longer the same person that you were when you graduated from high school almost a year ago. Getting involved is what can make some of those small changes.

I hope you made some amazing friends, people who quickly grew into a small family and would be there for you if anything were to happen, whether it be good or bad.

It is quite bittersweet, saying goodbye to your freshman year. You are about to live within the pages of your textbooks as you study all night for your finals (especially the ones that are cumulative), so you're excited that finals will soon be over. But you are sad to leave everything that you have made for yourself. So, please, find time to throw in a few more memories. Stand with your face to the sun so that your shadows always fall behind you, dance it out, and be your own person!

But know that you are on to bigger and better things. After leaving high school, we were thrust into the adult world even though many of us were still children. That is the best way to learn, though, through experience. So we can now say that we are slowly becoming adults because of what college has taught us (many of the things I have learned didn't even come from lecture or the very expensive textbooks that sit on my desk).

Next year we will be the role models for those who are taking over our spot; someone else will be living in your dorm and sleeping in the bed that you spent many nights in. They will be thrust into the adult world, many of them still children, and it will be expected of them everything that was expected of us. They will watch us without us really knowing so that they may find their niche, so that they may find their place. Be the best role model you can be, even if you may not get recognition for it.

If your freshman year wasn't what you were hoping it would be, that's okay. You still have a few years to make memories. Freshman year was amazing for me but other people may have an amazing sophomore year, junior year, or senior year. No matter which years are amazing for you, live them up because you only get one of them.

So, now, we are here. Standing with our faces in the sun in the hopes that we can feel warm and not have to worry about the dark places. Finals will soon be over and we will be packing up our belongings to make the trek back home, wherever that may be; college is amazing because you meet people from all over the place.

Be amazing and have a great summer.

Sophomore year will be here before you know it.