College.

College.
A place full of beginnings
The one time you can truly start over and begin again.
A time when you can take hold of all the little things you love about your self and make them who you really are.
You can finally escape the grasp of a controlling friend.
You can finally escape the reputation surrounding you.
You get to make choices for yourself.
If you don't want to do your homework or show up to class you can do that.
If you want to start drinking or lose yourself you can.
If you want to skip church you can.
You can do anything you want.
But the same consequences always follow.
I have seen people make choices that cause them to lose their freedom.
I have seen other people make choices that cause them to rise up and be a great strength to others.
Here at college I can make my own choices.
My parents aren't here to protect me anymore.
But they prepared me since birth for this first semester, when I would come to college, and I would make my own choices.
As I grew they taught how to make my own decisions, and they always reminded me to think of the consequences.
Now here I sit looking back on my first semester of college.
And I know who I am.
I know that I still have a lot of room to grow before I am at the next step of life.
But I can look back and be proud of the decisions I have made.
I can talk to my parents and my siblings and tell them story after exciting story.
There is nothing in my life that I want to hide or need to hide.
I am not perfect, but I am trying to be my very best.
And that is what has made all the difference in college.