To the handful of kids who will graduate from high school and go to college out of state...

Wow, you have no idea what is about to come your way. College is a whirlwind of new experiences, new people, and new problems. You'll encounter amazing new friends, a roommate, college courses with seas of students in them unlike your high school classes of 22 kids you've known since you were a teen, and the best times of your entire life. You'll face the obstacle of balancing your social life, your sleep schedule, and your academics, but these are all things one will face when they go to college in general. What makes your experience different from those who stayed in our lovely home state is that you get to be whoever you want to be. You get to introduce yourself and meet people on your own merit. Not off of what they have heard about you from back home. In some ways, this is scary. In others, it will be the best thing that ever happened to you.

If I could give you any advice it would be this:

- Stay optimistic.

It is hard when you are watching Snapchat stories and hearing about all your friends going to in state schools together. But be optimistic that you will soon have your people and be making new memories yourself. You get to now have your friends at home and make an endless list of more at school. Stay positive and make the most of your situations.

- Stay open minded.

Go out of your way to meet new people and try fun new things. There are so many people around you that are in the same timid and culture-shocked state that you are in. You will run into bumps in the road, people, places, and things you are not used to or necessarily happy with... it'll pass and there will be a silver lining.

- Leaving home is hard.

It is. However, through doing so you will find that you come to love and appreciate your family, friends, and hometown more than you ever thought was possible.

- Check your priorities.

It might escape your mind while you're out with friends, but that exam is not getting any further away and that homework still needs to be done. Don't forget that you are at school for an education.

- Meet people who will make you into the better version of yourself.

Not a worse version of yourself. When going to a school without your friends from home, you are the only one who knows if you are growing into a better person or transforming into a worse. You want to leave college and be happy with the person that it has shaped you into.

- You get to fall in love with a new place, new people, and a new environment.

You will learn how to navigate through a campus and a town like you've known it your entire life in barely a semester. You'll find yourself calling a state which you never gave much thought about when you were growing up, home. School pride is truly contagious.

- Trust yourself.

When you doubt that you took the path less traveled, and went to a school without your friends from high school, remind yourself that there is a reason you did that. There is a reason you are at the school that you chose and trust yourself that you made the right choice. I couldn't be happier with going to school out of state, the new friends that I have met, the new experiences that I have had and the person that I have become. I can only hope that everyone else feels the same.

Your home will always be there for you, but now is the time to experience the world outside of what you already know.