I just spent the last two hours taking down the decorations from my wall, and packing my things so my parents can bring them home tomorrow, which is a little strange because I could have sworn that it was just yesterday that I was hanging all that stuff up, and unpacking. But it wasn’t just yesterday. It was 305 yesterdays ago, and in between then and now, my life has changed forever. Your freshman year of college isn’t supposed to be the best thing. You’re supposed to be homesick, you’re supposed to cry, you’re supposed to struggle. And I did all of that. I cried, I missed home, high school and my friends and parents. I struggled to adjust, find friends that I truly liked-the whole nine yards. But I got lucky, because I was a freshman at Villanova-and not only did it make those hard moments a little bit easier to handle, but it made everything so much more worth it.

Villanova is special place. On the corner of Lancaster, in the middle of the suburbs, with only 6,000 undergraduate students-it isn’t the first place that most high school seniors look when applying to college. And to be honest, it wasn’t the first place I looked either. But I added it to my list because I figured-why not, it can’t hurt, right? And when I got accepted, I started looking more closely. And then I came to visit, and sat in on a class, and I was sold. It wasn’t that I thought the class was super interesting, or because the teacher was super funny, but it was because each and every student who was in that class said “hi” to me on their way out, encouraged me to come to Villanova, and a few stayed behind to see if I had any questions. It was those things, which had me struck a chord in me. And then when I came for Accepted Students Day, the pure love and joy that you could see on the faces of Villanova students when talking about their school made me realize that I wanted to be able to talk about my school and have my face look like that when I talked about it. And then, that was it. I was a Villanova Wildcat and I was never more excited for anything.

Now that I’ve spent an entire year here, I’ve realized that there is no place like Villanova. We joke about how we all hold the doors for each other -- that it’s just a Villanova thing. But it’s more than holding doors for someone-actually holding those doors is just the beginning. There’s not a student body that I can think of who loves each other and loves their school as much as this one. Anywhere you look, someone will throw you a smile. You talk to someone in a class for one second, and they’ll say “hi” to you three days later in the middle of the dining hall. They don’t have to but they do it, anyway. You can pick up a conversation with anyone, about anything, anywhere. I can’t imagine it being this way at another school. We don’t just watch out for ourselves, we watch out for our classmates too. Because in reality, they aren’t just classmates, they’re our best friends; our family.

But it’s not just each other that we love, it’s this school too. There’s something special about a student body that’s so obsessed with their basketball team that we have cardboard cut outs in our windows. That was creepy, but I’m not sorry. Because we don’t just have a cardboard head of Ryan Arcidiacono in our windows, but we have Villanova flags, stickers and posters too. There’s no student body that would have as many kids as we do apply to be a tour guide because we all want the chance to share with the world how much we love this school and how proud we are to be Wildcats.

No other school would have students work hours on end to plan something as incredible as Special Olympics, and every other service opportunity that makes being here so special. No other school has as many dedicated students, who work so hard to excel in academics and succeed beyond our years here at Villanova. And no other student body, will love their school for years beyond graduation more than the way that we do. We take pride in being part of the Nation and being a Wildcat-and I think that is something truly special. Because when I tell people I go to Villanova, the pride in my voice has nothing to do with me and the fact I got into Villanova, but everything to do with how proud I am of Villanova, how proud I am to be part of a school like this, and how lucky I am that I got the chance.

I’m going to take this sentence right here, and tell you how incredibly difficult it’s been to write this article. Part of it is because I’m suffering from sleep deprivation because of finals; another part is because I refuse to accept that I am one-fourth of the way through my college career and am currently tearing up just thinking about that, but most of it is because I have no words to describe what Villanova means to me. I have no words to describe how it felt walking onto campus for the first time, and seeing the smiling faces of everyone who would soon become some of the best people I’ve ever met. I have no words to describe what it’s like walking past a national champion in the halls of the best business school in the country. I have no words to describe how grateful I am, that I got the opportunity to go to a school like this. In the words of Archie: “I just love everything about this university.”

And finally, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to the two friends I met on the very first night of college in my dorm lounge-for giving me countless laughs, a friendly face around campus and for being some of the first people to make me realize that this school is more than just a school. Thank you to my roommate, who probably wanted to kill me more than a few hundred times but didn’t -- rather, she was always there for me, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Thank you to the girls in my hall-for being some of my first friends, and now some of my best friends. (Sorry, I always talked to you for longer than you probably wanted when we were in the bathroom brushing our teeth.) Thank you to my professors, who taught me more in two semesters than I thought was possible -- and not just about macroeconomics and business law. Thank you, Jay Wright and the basketball team, for giving me what will probably be the best weekend of my entire life and for giving me another reason to be incredibly proud to be a Villanova student. Also, sorry Father P. for burning down the quad.

Thank you to all of the people I met this year and the friends I made-from classmates to the people I spend my weekends with. Each and every one of you has something special about you, that makes me thank my lucky stars that I get to to know you. You’re some of the greatest people I’ve ever met, and I’m so glad to have experienced it all with you. I can’t wait to see what is in store for us in these next three years, because there’s no one else I’d want to do this with. Thank you to my parents, who have given me so much more than they will ever know, just by giving me the chance to go to Villanova. Thank you freshman year, for being one of the most difficult, frustrating, and confusing years. But thank you also, for being the most fun, exciting, adventurous, and amazing year. Finally, thank you Villanova, for being more than just a school, for being the best place on Earth, with the best people and the best basketball team (I’m telling you we really do love them). Thank you for being home, for capturing my heart, and for being the one place that I never actually want to leave. I love you, I miss you already, and I can’t wait for what lies ahead.