College is a time to grow, find new interests and for the first time, be independent of your parents. This can lead to becoming a new person. In high school, you were surrounded by the same people and had the same activities to do. There was not much variety in what you did every day. This was both good and bad. Good, because you often feel comfortable in what you are doing. Bad, because it can often become too repetitive and you are often left looking for something else to do. College has expanded my horizons and let me grow as a person. This is how college has changed me.

The first thing you have to realize about college is that you get more freedom than you have ever seen. There are no parents here telling you to get up for class or telling you what time you have to be home for bed. It’s almost entirely up to you. This may seem like an amazing thing, but then again the freedom can go to your head. There have been nights that I have stayed up past 3 a.m., and the next morning I had no motivation to go to class, but I still went. The freedom that comes with college has helped me become a better with time management. I can now manage my time as to when I need to be in bed and when I need to get up to get to class on time. No longer do I have my mom waking me up to get to class on time, now it is totally up to me. Luckily, I have only missed three classes due to being sick. I would like to think that’s not too bad for a kid that just was introduced to this amount of freedom.

The second way that college has changed me is making me a better communicator. Starting out in college, I was initially shocked at how many people you would meet. The first week here I probably spoke to more than a thousand people. Obviously, I don't remember everyone’s name and hardly see half of them now, but it still helped to make me a better communicator. While talking to that many people, I had to find easier and simpler ways to get my message across in a short amount of time. Not only that, but I have become a better communicator through email. In college, if you need to talk to a professor then, most likely, the only way is through email. College has helped me become a better and more professional communicator with my professors.

Those are just two ways that college has helped to change me. I like to think that college has made me an overall better person. I do miss home and miss my

family, but I am loving every second of college and will continue to grow while at James Madison University. One day I would like to return home a more developed person because of college.