Dear My Darling Niece… You Are Off To College

Dear My Darling Niece,

Today you are off to college!! You get to move into the dorms and experience your first night away from home on your own. I remember laying in my dorm bed for the first night away, feeling a little out of place and missing my bed at home. I had major excitement and anticipation for the first week about who I would meet, would I make new friends, would my classes be hard? I am sure there are a million emotions and thoughts going on in your head.

I can still remember finding out when you were going to arrive into the world. I remember the first time I visited you and got to hold you. I was beyond happy to be an Aunt, but even more excited to be yours. We are closer in age than my older brothers and I was excited to have another girl around. I would dress you up, do your hair, do your makeup, and we would play together. I loved getting to watch you grow up and become the person you are today. You are so unbelievably strong and I am so proud of you. There are so many things I want to tell you about college and what to do and mistakes not to make that I did, but I want you to experience it for yourself.

But, I can tell you that there will be moments where you are nervous and scared to walk into a room because you know no one, or other moments where you walk in and everyone’s face is familiar. You will have the best times and laugh until you cry and there other times you will cry because your heart hurts. You will learn how to become an adult and make tough life decisions. You may get it wrong and choose poorly and other times you will make the right decision and everything works out perfectly.

There might be times that you pull all nighters and cram in lots of studying for your midterms or finals. There is going to be times that you procrastinate and wait until the very last second to turn in your paper in or there are other times that you are so on top of your to do list that you have so much extra free time to do whatever you want. You might really need to push yourself to do something and other things will come naturally.

You will  meet your lifelong friends that will be in your wedding one day and you will also say goodbye to friends who don’t deserve you.  There will be weeks where you get no sleep at all and other weeks where you get plenty of rest and are even able to take a few naps. You will learn major life lessons and some won’t be as obvious as others. There will be moments where you are scared and other times you feel at peace. You just might fall in love and you just might get your heart broken.

All of these are a part of the journey and it might feel overwhelming right now. There is a million things I wish I could tell you, I want to tell you, but I can’t really put into words my college experience. Everyone’s college experience is uniquely theirs. These next 4 years are yours for the taking, for you to discover yourself, what type of person you are, and what matters to you. I will always be your biggest cheerleaders and will be here for you every step of the way.

Yours forever & always,

Your Loving Aunt

 

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