Anticipation (n); The act of anticipating, expecting, and predicting.

We’re always looking forward to something in life. Whether it's sleep after a long day of class, work, or homework; Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, or summer. We even look forward to that one night a week when our favorite show airs a new episode.

But what happens when after weeks, months, maybe even years of anticipating some major event, it’s gone.

What happens when that night of sleep, that desired weekend, that special birthday vanishes faster than ever?

For most of this calendar year, I’ve been struggling with the reality that the events I look forward to with such passionate anticipation are fast-paced. Events I have truly treasured and appreciated before but now they are just leaving me empty handed and with zero clue on what will happen next.

My entire spring semester, was spent wishing and praying summer would come faster. But once that came and went as quickly as every summer does, I evaluated everything I had coming up in the next half of the year that I could excitedly anticipate.

I looked forward to a new set of classes, fall recruitment, fall break, the possibility that the Cubs could win the World Series (which they did) and my upcoming twenty-first birthday.

Now that most of these events are just sweet memories, what happens next?

I’m an ambitious person. I like setting goals and achieving these goals. But what do I after this is over?

Well, I must remind myself that life goes on; and when life goes on it gifts us the opportunity to find new moments to look forward to with pure excitement - both in the short and long terms.

After this anticipation-filled, thrilling year of my life comes to an end, I have a clean slate to write out an entire new set of goals and expectations that I can look forward to with my whole heart.

So, if you find yourself asking, “What’s next?” remember that wherever there’s an ending, there’s an opportunity for a new beginning.

Summer always comes back around, your dreams and aspirations for the future are always something to keep working towards, there will always be an entertaining hour of television that you must watch each week, and each day is laced with little moments that you can eagerly anticipate. What’s next? Let me tell you, there’s still so much in store.