Life begins at the end of your comfort zone, right?

As a senior in high school, you are forced to make a decision that will affect your life forever. Are you going to college? If so, where? What will you major in? How will you pay for all of this? How is an 18 year old supposed to make these decisions? One day you are having to ask to go to the bathroom, and the next you get to decide if you even want to show up to class.

During my senior year, I felt like I was on top of the world when I was told that I got to make all these decisions for myself; and then the world flipped itself over, and suddenly, it felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. Next thing I knew, I wanted someone else to make these decisions for me. I had no idea what I wanted to study or where I wanted to go. All I knew was that I had to get away. I wanted to go outside of my state, away from everything I knew and outside of my comfort zone. My entire life has been spent traveling as much as I can, whenever I can. That made me want to go far away for college, but I soon realized how expensive that would cost. Going to a college far away seemed like the only plan I had, so when that ended up not being an option, I had no plan and no idea what I wanted to do.

Like many others, I went on a college trip- well, actually multiple college trips. I visited schools in New York, Washington D. C., Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. These schools that I toured all told me the things that any prospective student wants to hear, so these college visits did not help me make this important decision of where I would be attending school for the next four years.

After narrowing my choices down to three options, and then to two, I finally made my decision months after most of my friends. I chose to go to Southern Miss and I have been very happy with this decision. At times, I wonder if I chose the right one, but at the end of the day, I do not think that I could see myself at any other school.

The first week at USM was the hardest. My parents helped me pack everything up and moved me into my dorm. We had the typical teary eyed goodbye and I watched them drive off, leaving me in a different state all by myself. Having to adjust to living with someone who was basically a stranger was scary. Luckily for me, my roommate is awesome. Having her there with me to struggle during the first week made it a little easier, especially when we made a late night trip to go get cookies from Insomnia. The hardest part for me was knowing that my best friend was over a hundred miles away from me, still in Louisiana, at a different school doing her own thing. Also, what was I supposed to do without my dogs? I was truly on my own for this new adventure that I chose. I thought it would be cool going to a school where very few people knew who I was. I changed my mind about that a few days after moving in when I realized that I did not know anybody but everyone else seemed to know everyone. I realized that I had to make the most of this and figure out who I was without having to live up to anyone's expectations of being who I was in high school. This was exciting for me because I got to choose how to write this next chapter of my life. Who did I want to surround myself with for the next few years? What did I care about? Who was I?

Having the opportunity to find myself was going outside of my comfort zone, and I couldn't be happier with the decisions that I made. I highly recommend taking the risk and jumping outside of your comfort zone to live life to the fullest. I am extremely grateful to hae the chance to learn so much in only a few weeks of being away, and I wouldn't change a thing.