What they say is true

With warm weather each spring comes a time for change and a chance to move on. It happened to me in preschool, the sixth grade, ninth grade, senior year of high school and it's happening again in less than two weeks. \nBefore I went away to college, everyone I talked to told me to enjoy my four years of college because they would go by too fast. I remember thinking to myself, "yeah, yeah, I'll enjoy it." That might be the one piece of advice I wish I would have listened to -- not to say I haven't enjoyed my time in college.\nThe past four years seem like one big blur, but they might be one of the best blurs of my life. College was nothing like I thought it was going to be and was everything it should have been. It's funny how a mere four years can change you. \nI arrived on campus with the next four years of my life planned out. I thought my boyfriend from high school and I would be together forever. I would graduate in three and half years and we would live happy ever after.\nI was confident in my religious beliefs and my political views. I was prissy and some of my friends might argue stuck-up. I was to -- say the least -- close-minded. But somewhere in the last four years, I grew up a little bit.\nI learned that high school relationships don't always last forever and staying in your Ashton dorm room on the phone three hours a night probably isn't the best way to make friends or enjoy college. (So needless to say, that relationship failed.) I learned to question things I had been taught to believe my whole like, like just because I don't go to Mass every Sunday doesn't mean I am not religious.\nIt took me a while, but I figured out I can still be conservative and love "The Colbert Report." I realized my junior year that college had been some of the best years of my life and I wasn't ready to give it up after only three and half. I am still not ready to give it up after four. I would like to think I am not as prissy and I never thought I was stuck-up.\nI have met some of the most amazing people in my life during these years. I have had the pleasure of learning from them and from some of best professors. For that, I will forever be thankful. The education and life lessons I have learned in and outside of the classroom, I will carry with me forever. \nI won't miss writing 10 to 20 page papers and I won't miss studying for tests. But I will miss not having Friday classes and not having class till 11:15 a.m. on those other four days, because apparently in the "real world" work is five days a week and begins at 9 a.m. Who knew?\nI will miss spending 40-plus hours a week at the Indiana Daily Student office. I have had the pleasure of working with the best collegiate journalists during my time here and I know one day I will see their bylines in very prestigious newspapers and magazines. I hope that in my role as WEEKEND editor in chief, I have served you all well. I am proud of the work my staff and I have done this semester, and you should know we did it for you.\nI realized it's OK have gone through seven semesters of school and still be unsure of what you want to do when you enter the "real world." You have the rest of your life to work a nine-to-five; why not enjoy a break from school and work for a couple of months. \nSometimes when your parents or older siblings give you advice about college, it's hard to take them seriously. After all, my dad was an undergrad more than 25 years ago. But I think when he told me to enjoy my college years, he was right. I have lived in a bubble sheltered from reality the past four years -- and it's about to pop. \nAnd though I might not have a job when I graduate and I might not remember everything I learned in my classes, I will remember some of the best times of my life down on Kirkwood and in Ernie Pyle 120 and to me that's worth at least $60,000.