I'm a month away from finishing my second year of college. I've made unbelievable friends and unforgettable memories. I've learned new things and taught old things. I also gained many pounds, only to shed them after my father so graciously pointed out the added weight.

The Freshmen Fifteen is a real thing. A horrible, ugly phenomenon which states that freshmen in college will gain fifteen pounds by the end of that year. Some freshmen don't quite reach the mark. Some blow right past it. I seemed to live on the line my first year. In my opinion, it has to do with the change in lifestyle. You're no longer forced to exercise at school every day. You're also not having those nutritious. You're literally living off whatever works with your meal plan.

Going into my second year, I made a pact with myself to be healthier. I decided I would watch what I was eating, how much of it I was eating, and begin exercising every day. And I did all of those things for a while. I've certainly slacked in some areas more than others. My exercising has been abandoned. My eating has fluctuated back and forth between a good choice and far too much of a bad choice.

The good news within all of this health talk is that college has shaped me to be a healthier person. And traveling really helped. After my trip to Sweden, eating wasn't as grand of a task. The food not as exquisite. Not to mention that I wasn't constantly hungry due to not being able to constantly eat while abroad. When I got back to the states, that habit carried over.

I don't eat whenever I'm in my room anymore; in fact, I tend to only have three meals a day and typically one snack. You may think that this is normal. But I snacked as much as possible in my freshmen year to deal with the changes and stress that came with these changes.

Almost finished with my second year of college and I'm just now figuring out how to healthily survive the abnormalities that come with this limbo that is college. It's a good thing though. I'm glad to have figured out than to have come out weighing thirty pounds heavier and feeling unhealthy in my own skin.