A little more than four years ago, I was in a panic because I only had a few days to decide what quote I wanted to accompany my senior photo in my high school yearbook. The picture I was forced to run was bad enough; I didn’t want to be remembered as the girl with one eye half-closed and a ridiculous life philosophy to boot. On the 11th hour, I turned in a quote without a known author that now seems overly clichéd but at the time seemed as good as any: “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

It’s simultaneously exhausting and liberating to think about creating yourself. Some days, I think it’d be kind of nice to have my life a little more mapped out, to have a few more answers. Most of the time, however, I take comfort in the fact that there is no single way I’m supposed to be.

It’d be almost impossible not to change when one is introduced to new people and new ideas and is given the amount of freedom college life allows.

But it’s important to remember that these elements did not change who I am. Rather, what matters are the decisions (and mistakes) you make with everything that is thrown your way and that you realize you’re a constant work in progress.

When people ask me what I’m doing next year, I tell them I’m heading to graduate school. This is true, but it’s not a complete answer. I couldn’t begin to guess all this will entail. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in store for me — but I’m even more anxious to see what I do with it.

Ani Vrabel is a College senior from Ponte Vedra, Fla.