A large part of our lives is spent in a school, a place where we learn new ideas, facts, characteristics, and most importantly life lessons needed to carry us through each of our own lives. I have always loved going to school and have a natural urge to absorb everything I learn.

Kindergarten through Eighth grade was a very sheltered part of my life that allowed me to enjoy my childhood and where I started to develop into the salty teenager I was (and still can be at times.) High school was a crucial part of my life too. It is where I started to really embrace who I was as a person, and I was happy at the beginning with all freedoms that come with being a teenager. However, it was also some of the most challenging years of my life where I started to question who I was as a person and where I was going. It is also where I thought I lost the old, gleeful, untroubled, always-smiling Sophia. I did lose her for a little while and it was hard to find her once again. However, all the trials were with it because it allowed me to find myself once again.

As cliche as it might sound, College is really truly a time to find yourself. I am only a month in and can say that some of that statement is true. Being in a new environment brought out a side of me that I never really felt I should embrace. I knew this person was inside of me my whole life, but I always let fear get in the way of really knowing who I was especially as a daughter of God.

I am becoming a go-getter. I was always this before, but now it is getting stronger. I am persistent with many of the things I want for myself. I am becoming more of the outgoing person I once was a very long time ago embracing new people and new experiences. I am not sitting in my little shy shell. I am loving what I am learning and I am really applying what I am learning to what I experience in everyday life.

Most importantly, I am happy. I do not think I have had a natural happiness radiating from me in a long time. I put on a mask of happiness for a while, and I was content, but never truly happy. I embracing each day with a new set of positive eyes. I think college is really allowing for this to happen because I do not feel so much pressure as I did in high school and all the drama that comes with it. The people I have encountered in college just seem to take life day by day. There is not so much focus on the future, but rather on how you as an individual can grow as a human being to make your mark in the world, but also how you benefit your community just by being you. I think what makes me so happy here is the understanding that I can be myself. I am comfortable in my own skin and I just want to share this version of Sophia with others.

I like this person I am becoming. I feel like I am getting back to my old self again, however, I am bringing all the old Sophia’s with me because they are helping me change into the young woman I am today and the future self I did not know yet.

I am not saying that I have found myself yet because knowing yourself is an ongoing process. I am also not saying that I will not encounter struggles along the way because those are just part of being human. However, now I am happy, joyful, and lighthearted. I am grateful for the experiences that have been given to me right in this moment and may I continue to prosper doing what I was meant to do with no fear, only joy.