you never know.

You never know what you're missing until you can't have it anymore.

This has been a topic on my mind for the past few months, and for a variety of reasons. I have been thinking about graduation since this past October. I didn't think I was ready to graduate, I never wanted to leave Tech and my friends, but then that feeling disappeared. I had never been so ready to leave when winter break rolled around. There isn't one reason, there aren't even multiple reasons, it's a feeling that I can't fight. I am being called somewhere else, to a different state, a different program, to a new portion of my life; and ever since I have become so enthralled with this feeling and wrapped up in it, my mind hasn't been focused on anything else.

I want to spend more time at home with my parents, I want to visit my grandma, I want to make impromptu trips to see my best friend, I want to drive away, far away from Virginia Tech and move on. Now, that is not supposed to sound like I am unhappy at this school or place I am in, that is definitely not the case. It's just that I have seen what is before me, where my future lies, and all I want to do now is run after it, faster and faster until I reach it. That was until a few days ago. It's always nice to take a little trip away from school, even if it's with friends from school. Just being in a new place for a day or two gives you the breath of fresh air that you have been looking for. That trip made me realize a lot. Not only that Blacksburg has played such an important rule in my life, but that the people here have changed me.

The future is blurry and I am trusting and believing that situations will work out in the way they are supposed to. But I know that I will miss Virginia Tech, I truly will. This school has changed me, I have discovered who I am, what I believe in, and what really matters in life. There will always be a little piece of Blacksburg in my heart, and it will never leave, and that's what we all have to remember. I realize that I truly will miss sitting on top of War Memorial Chapel at 3 a.m. laughing and talking until the sun rises, or that the Kappa house is just a short drive away, or that my best friends and I can drive around without a worry in our minds because we are together and that's all that matters. But graduation is 3 months and 4 days away - and soon enough Blacksburg will become another memory to add to my life, one that I will never, ever forget.

But it's not scary, it's exciting. You come to that moment in your life when you know it's time for something new. I'm being patient, I am waiting, but I know that in a few short weeks I will, God willing, have an acceptance letter in my hand from one of my top choice graduate school programs and I will be ready. Ready to explore, learn, and, fingers crossed, live 17 hours away from home in a new, unknown place.