Cliches make me sick, but I can’t avoid them. I sit here staring at this column I have been trying to write all summer. I have had the idea for a long time that this is “my last first day.”

It is my last first day of school (credits willing). It’s my last first column of the semester, and I am at a loss for words.

This isn’t uncommon, but at this point it is most critical to find the words to express what this last first day feels like.

After my last summer as a college kid, soon I will be entering the real world. The sweet summer freedom is gone, and this semester is just beginning. I feel both excited and extremely nervous at the same time.

I keep trying to take it all in – the little things – such as the first night walk around the beautiful campus and eating lunch with my friends in the Thoroughbred Room. I just can’t imagine this day not coming again.

I have fantasized about this day for a long time, but I never imagined it being so bittersweet.

I have prepared and planned my graduation day in my head a thousand times with only happy thoughts. There is no doubt that graduation day will be a happy one because of the things I have accomplished, but it will also be a motion forward.

It will be scary to search for a job and put myself out there. I won’t be under the guidance of anyone for the first time. It’s all a new risk.

However, I have realized that college has done at least one (so far) marvelous thing for me.

In college, I found confidence.

Though college is not anywhere close to real life, college is a struggle.

There are late nights, early mornings and stressful days. But in the end they are all worth it. I have found something I love to do, while learning how to be confident in the way I present myself. All the stress is worth it because it teaches you that you can get through if you push and motivate yourself.

No matter how scary the real world may be in a few short months, I have the confidence to get through the next step in my life. It helps to know I have other Racers right beside me.

Story by Hunter Harrell, Features Editor