Yesterday, my best friend in the entire world, Julia, graduated high school. In the fall, Julia will be becoming a Bobcat with me at Quinnipiac. Words cannot describe how happy I am that we will be going to college together. We really are putting the forever in best friends forever.

Whenever we talk about college, I always tell her one thing – what you put into college is what you will get out of it. If there is any life lesson that I learned from college, it was that.

In college, you get to make your own decisions. Are you going to focus on your social life? Are you going to focus on your academics? Each and every decision ends up counting towards the end result.

If you take the time to study for your sociology test, you are going to get a better grade than if you didn’t study.
If you go out and meet people, you are going to end up knowing a lot more people on campus.

See, it’s a very simple equation – what you put in is what you are going to get out. You will reap the benefits of your own actions.

In my first year at Quinnipiac, I made a lot of aspects a priority – my education, my social life, and my extracurricular activities. During my first year, I am proud to say I made dean’s list both semesters, have a group of friends I consider like a family, have a group of sisters thanks to my sorority who mean the world to me, am a proud member of our award winning school newspaper, this year’s general manager of our school’s yearbook, as well as a writer for Quinnipiac’s chapter of Her Campus. As hard as it was to keep everything a priority, the effort that I put into it ultimately paid off in the end. There where many days when I ran low on sleep, but to say all of what I accomplished freshman year is an amazing feeling.

Everyone should be proud of what they have to say of their accomplishments after each year of college. By opening up your eyes to see what you truly want to accomplish and by putting in the effort to reach those goals, you will see results.

The same rule goes for life – what you put in is what you are going to get out.

So get out there, chase your dreams, and do exactly what you want to do because in the end, you’re going to see a result from your actions.