We spend so much of our lives traveling the country to visit schools that exist only in our dreams. We fly up for weekend tours or weekday vacations while hitting the hot spots of that city with its nighttime beauty of a stunning skyline. Our summer days, spent by the water or in an exotic country, go by as if we were flipping a page of the summer reading we decide to put off one day longer. Everything we have done since the first day we walked through those red doors into the cold main hallway has prepared us to escape. But once people start leaving, all that those left behind crave is togetherness and for the “good old times” to come back.

It’s scary. It’s unnerving. It’s emotional. It’s new. It’s fresh. It’s hopeful. Leaving is a lot of things; however, staying behind gets no credit for the uproar it can cause. We say goodbye to a sister until Thanksgiving, a brother until Christmas, a best friend until Spring Break and maybe a boyfriend until that random holiday in between the crazy days of our never-ending senior year.

We hear all the talk about excitement to leave, and you realize that you can’t leave yet. It’s not your turn; we have not been fully prepared to take on living with your own rules. But to those who are stuck behind, leaving is a lesson. We learn the fear of being away. Our nerves run high at the thought of loneliness. Emotions change faster than we can conform to that emptiness. We understand how much preparation is needed for our next beginning. Our anxieties are comforted by what is to come. Dreams of a great future begin to form.

I can’t wait to get out of Houston, become the young woman who will either find easy success or challenging success and go on to instill values on all the lives I touch. I will trade in my lock for a dorm key, my backpack in for a laptop case and my dress code for the pajamas in which I’ll wake up late and wear while running to class. Leaving is a big change, a change that is so awesome, amazing and terrifying. Saying goodbye is only temporary, and during the time our college friends are becoming new people whether 100 or 1000 miles away, we go up a year, and we make new bonds with younger students who less than four years ago we were mirror images of.

Throughout our whole lives we have prepared for the moment when we will walk across the stage, receive a diploma and then eventually try to synchronize the throwing of our red tasseled graduation caps into the air. It can be the most challenging part of growing up, but it’s also the most beneficial. Through the fear and determination of that sibling or friend, we have learned that the next chapter of our life is something to look forward to, as it will change our lives forever, and, I believe, for the better.