With school starting soon, those that are going off to college are saying their goodbyes and moving in or buying school supplies to prepare to start the next school year. There's a whole lot of feelings involved more so this year than any other.

Anxiety, stress, nervousness, sadness, happiness, and excitement are all valid feelings.

When going through something new or different oftentimes we can suppress our emotions or just shove them all down and deal with them later.

But just take a breath, take a breather.

All those emotions that you've been having, feel them. They make you human.

That pressure to succeed, the sadness of leaving the street you grew up on, your nanny kids, your siblings, best friends, parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, cousins, just everyone. It's all sad that it's never going to ever be the same again. But it's never going to be the same again!! Change is so scary sometimes, but it's so good and needed.

With change comes feelings. Feelings are OK. They're needed.

You have permission to feel all that you are feeling. It is OK. It is normal. It will get better. This new change that seems so difficult, different, scary, and hard right now will become the new normal. It will feel like it's always been like this, just easy and natural.

The very first day that I moved into my dorm room this year there's only one way to describe how I felt — lost with no direction and completely overwhelmed. I wasn't even sure where the door to my building was, or that I had to scan my card to get into the elevator. It's the second day now and I have absolutely no idea where to do my laundry or even where the stairs are. BUT I figured out how to get into my building, the elevator, and the bathrooms (yes it is tricky). My point is, it gets better. Slowly but it does. Throughout the days that I've been alone in a different state than everyone I love, I've felt all the feelings. Like all of them. But I'm getting better, and have to do my best to make the time that I have here the very best it can be.