These past two weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of being able to speak with my beautiful best friends. Pretty much all of them I met about a year ago at BU orientation. In those conversations, you and I both get to see what they learned from their first year of college. It truly is fascinating and inspirational. I knew that when I was creating this series chronicling their thank you notes, my last article of the year would involve something along the lines of my personal reflections after this year and everything that I’ve been through.
When I think back to where I was exactly a year ago — in this moment, as I’m writing this article — it’s insane for me to think about how different my life was. I was finishing my time at a place I called home for 13 years. There were many friends and loved ones that I would be saying goodbye to for good and some only temporarily.
My time at BU has been better than I anticipated. I knew I was going to love it. It wasn’t because of the independence, the freedom or merely being in college. I love the independence. I love the freedom, but I feel like those values were things already instilled in me. I’m very fortunate to have parents who let me be independent and trusted me at a younger age.
The one thing that stands out to me is how much my sense of self has prospered and grown after this year. Before coming to school, I felt like my sense of self was strong. It was already very much there and I didn’t think that it could grow. But through coming to an entirely new place and really having to deal with change in all aspects of my life (most of which I couldn’t really anticipate), I was forced to think about how I wanted to know myself even better, so that others could really understand me. This year, I was building up a whole new world as an individual, alone, in a new home. So I learned… I call the shots. I define myself.
I define myself.
Not you, no friend, no person, no teacher. Just me.
And because I was able to grasp this concept, my confidence, my sense of self, my sense of purpose and my sense of happiness have been stronger than ever before.
I always told myself to reach higher. That’s what I told myself when I stumbled upon the Her Campus booth at Splash back in September. That’s what I told myself when I applied for 25 jobs in NYC this summer. That’s what I told myself before every call back interview. Combining the concept of reaching higher and knowing that I define myself worked like a charm.
So… next steps? I’ll be in New York City interning for one of my favorite companies that has the same values that I have. Thanks to my readers, this little advice column I pitched at one of my earliest HCBU meetings has grown. Next year, get ready. At the beginning of every month, Sundays with Margo will be a podcast! The rest of the month following, it will be my regular, written column. I’m so excited to see what the future holds as I continue my time here at BU. And don’t forget, always reach for the stars! You never know what could happen.
Once again, thank you so much for reading!
Until next semester,
Margo