End of the Year blues && Revelations.

As this semester comes to a close, I realize that I have almost successfully finished my freshman year of college at Clark Atlanta University. And then a question comes to mind. What has Clark done this year to make me a better person?
A year ago, I was a senior at Rockwall High School in Rockwall, TX. I had just recieved my acceptance letter to Clark, and was super hyped to come out here to start the new chapter in my life. At that point in my life, I had just turned 18 and was still such a naive young woman. I had always lived in a fairly nice neighborhood, around a lot of Caucasian people. I was not a sheltered suburban girl, but I had definitely not experienced anything different than upper middle class living. Coming to Clark, or Atlanta in general, I was aware that it would be a drastic change from what I was used to, but I was willing to embrace it to the fullest. Getting used to living on my own away from home and having to do everything for myself was hard at first, but it made me grow a lot and helped me come to the conclusion that no one is going to walk you through college. No one is going to be right by your side telling you what you can or cannot do everyday. The choice is always up to you. Whether I ultimately chose to go out and party over going to class was completely my choice, but in the back of my mind there was always the reality that by doing this I am just wasting my time and my mother's money. Therefore, it was back to business as usual. However, I regret no decision I have made. I simply make a choice, and live with the consequences. If i seemed to make a wrong choice, then it is just a learning experience that i have grown from and now know what to do if I am ever in the same situation again. On my grind, I did my best to keep my grades at or above the standards I was used to, and I can say I am proud of what I have done in the past year. Being away from home as truly only helped me as a person, and if given another choice to go to a school in Texas, I would still choose Clark over any institution closer to home.
The people I have met and be-friended this school year have become so special to me. They have showed me that I can always be myself and there is no reason to act like someone you are not. Being yourself is the most important thing because acting fake all the time will eventually make you lose yourself altogether and then no one will truly know the "real" you. Embracing your personality, body, and mind is all apart of discovering yourself to have a better understanding of who you are as a person. Being exposed to so many different types of people and their backgrounds have made me see myself for who I am and helped me to love myself as I am. I can confidently say, there is nothing that I would change about myself at this point in my life.
Now, I am simply awaiting the person who will love me for how I am. The person that God wants me to be with. The one that will respect me as well as my wishes for my future. The one who will support me with whatever I decide to do with my life, and think the exact same of me if I was the garbage lady or owner of a magazine. The one who will sweep me off my feet like in fairy tales and claim that part of my heart. So I wait. Patiently for "the one".