I’ve never been very good at goodbyes. Maybe it’s because I don’t like change (I have lived in the same exact room for the last three years), but I’ve always hated the thought of endings. It’s even harder when it’s a place, not a person, you have to say leave behind. You can’t tell a building, “I’ll miss you” or explain to a campus how much it’s changed you. This place has, without a doubt, made me who I am and taught me how to shape who I’m going to be.

One of my running jokes with my good friends is telling them how they wouldn’t have recognized me my freshman year. Like a good little international kid, I was all set to be pre-business. I spent my first year here taking all but one of the prerequisites for the B-School. Now, four years later, I’m about to graduate with a co-major in English and Journalism and spend my time wandering campus with chalk-dust on my fingertips.

I can’t imagine it any other way. This place gave me the courage to pursue my passions. It showed me how a little experimentation with something you love can lead to a career. As I prepare to leave and enter the next stage of my life, I feel more than ready to take on whatever intellectual challenges may come my way.

At Emory, I’ve been able to learn for Pulitzer Prize winning authors, professors who are iconic in their fields, and others who have shared experiences that have shaped my outlook on the world. Luckily, I’ve also had the opportunity to be at a school with an administration that understands that learning occurs outside the classroom just as much as inside. Every here gets involved, everyone finds some way to leave their mark on the campus, as it inevitably leaves a mark on them.

For us seniors, this is the place we were during four of our most live-shaping years; it’s where we transitioned from teen hood to adulthood. I remember the very first time I called this place home. It was on December break of sophomore year when I said, “I can’t wait to be home again”. Now, years after that conversation, I sit here unable to say goodbye. While I am ecstatic over what I have lined up for post-grad, it’s a slightly bittersweet moment.

But then I remember that the people that I have met here at Emory will always be in my life. I have found friends who amaze and impress me every single day. I have one friend who aspires to find ways to quench the thirst of every person on Earth. Another is dying to see what the world looks like when you’re standing on the moon. I have no doubt that the people I’ve met here will go on to do incredible things. I constantly find myself in awe of these people, whom I have the privilege of calling my peers.

And this place will always be a part of each of us. Maybe that’s all it takes to hold on to home even when you’re no longer there, a group of people who all cherish the same place.

Simran Khosla graduated from the college in May 2012.