I never, ever pictured myself as the student who would end up transferring colleges.

I'd always been someone who was confident in my decisions and rarely second guessed myself. When I was applying to colleges my senior year, I made a list of schools and did endless research on them. I was confident in my SAT scores, confident in my grades, and when my acceptance letters came rolling in, I chose a college that fit the criteria of my "perfect college." Judging from the photos I posted on Facebook and Instagram and the tweets I made about my friends and the school that I claimed to love, others probably would've thought it was the perfect college for me, too.

Social media might have illustrated me as a happy student at the school I attended my freshman year of college, but in real life, I wasn't nearly as happy as my pictures portrayed. I wasn't completely miserable, but I definitely wasn't myself. I tried getting involved in things that peaked my interest, only to be let down that the college I had chosen wasn't at all what I imagined my college experience to be. Yes, I had great friends, and yes, I was getting a top notch education, but I never felt whole at my old school. A piece of me was missing, and I felt like I would never find that piece if I stayed at that school.

Transferring colleges was never something I had planned on, which made it harder for me to believe that I truly did not like the school I was at freshman year. I tried so hard to love it, but I just couldn't. I went to bed every night and prayed for things to be different, for a sign to verify that I was meant to be at that school, but nothing changed. I woke up every morning and walked to class with a nagging feeling that I wasn't at the right college. I sat in class and looked around at fellow students, wondering why they seemed to love it here so much and I didn't. I would hang out with my friends and question why they enjoyed the school far more than I did. Why was it their perfect school, but not mine?

I was scared to transfer schools. I was scared to leave my friends and leave a college that I already had become accustomed to. I didn't want to go to a brand new school and have to learn where everything is all over again. My biggest fear was that I would transfer to a school and realize that the school I had left was actually the perfect fit for me. I feared regretting my decision to leave my old school.

Fast forward six months, and I am a completely different person. Well, not different... I am my old self again. I returned to being the outgoing, friendly person who smiles at everyone she walks by and loves being surrounded by people. Transferring schools not only helped me grow as a student, but as a person. I feel so much more wise, and so much more confident in myself than I ever have before. I know that I am at the college where I belong. I have found my place, I have found my true friends, and I couldn't be more thankful that I had a second chance at choosing the college for me. I look back on the memories of my freshman year at my old college and smile, because not only are they memories, they are lessons. I wouldn't want to change anything about my college career so far; transferring schools helped me grow so much as a person, and I am thankful for the mistakes I made that have led me to the place I am now in my life.

If you had told me a year ago that my future self would end up transferring colleges, I would've definitely thought you were lying. A year ago, I could've never imagined that it was possible to be this happy and in love with life. Transferring colleges has shaped me into a person I am proud to be, and I cannot see what the next two and a half years has in store for me.