If you were to have seen me a year ago, you’d wonder if I was even the same person. A year ago, I was a senior in high school and was in multiple toxic relationships between myself and friends and family. I was shy and full of anxieties and insecurities. Granted I still have anxiety but it’s not as overwhelming. I’m a girl from a small town in Massachusetts that somehow found her way to Saint Vincent College in Pennsylvania; a thirteen-hour drive from home. I still have no idea how I found Saint Vincent College, but I truly believe that it was God and my guardian angels pointing out the path I need to take in order to grow and find out who I am. A year ago, I was allowing other people to be my identity. I wrote a letter to myself in September that I just recently read, and I’ve realized I have changed so much since then. In February of 2018, I was a senior high school student in the dental assisting program of a trade school and prepping for my senior project presentation about denture. Yes, dentures! I was dealing with drama from my closest friends and working. I was depressed.
But I always had a smile and I never stopped helping those who needed me. I was known for, when asked, making other people’s problems my problems. Although, it took a toll on me mentally and emotionally. Then I came to Saint Vincent College in August after having a summer filled with memories both good and bad. I had so many expectations and hopes. Let’s just say my first semester was nothing like I expected, and it was super rocky, and I was homesick and had a lot of social anxiety. I had a great roommate, but sadly in November I no longer had a roommate. As sad as that was, I saw the silver lining and used this new-found solidarity to really focus on me and how to change my ways and have better study habits and figure out who I am. My first semester never had a dull moment thanks to having met my amazing best friend, Kayla.
Here we are in February of 2019, I’m in my second semester of college, once again away from home and old friends and family, after a month of being home. Never did I think I would ever get over the homesickness that I was plagued with in my first semester, but now that I’m more established and finding my way I couldn’t be more grateful for being here. I wouldn’t be as happy here if it wasn’t for my amazing best friend, she makes me smile even when I didn’t think I could. She makes me laugh until my stomach hurts and I tear up. We’ve made so many crazy amazing and hilarious memories, even the times I’ve comedically fallen in mud and we’d laugh like crazy people. And Charmed has become a sacred show that we only can watch together. I’m so glad to have Kayla in my life. God truly blessed me, he brought a best friend to me when I had no one in this unfamiliar place. Now, you usually won’t see us away from each other too often! In the matter of a year, I’ve become a little happier, and a little braver, and found a new hope in myself and my dreams for the future. Isn’t wild how much can change in 365 days?
HCXO,
Julia