Friends! It’s here. The final stretch. My last semester of school has finally arrived. Before we dive into the emotions that are spring 2021, can we take a trip down memory lane? To spring 2014? I know, that is such a long time ago, but with the pandemic still taking place, what can be more fun than constant and never ending reflection? Someone queue “Ribs” by Lorde and let’s go.

It’s spring 2014. I am turning 18 at some point this semester, but I have never been one to celebrate my own birthday. I definitely make it a priority to celebrate my friends’ days of birth, but my own? Never her. Besides, this is my last semester of high school. I don’t care about my birthday right now. At this moment, I only care about college admission results!!

17 and nervous? More like 17 and irrationally petrified? Very that. I fear I am going to be denied by my dream and goal college… (Spoiler alert: I did).

If I don’t get into my goal university, what am I going to do?! Will it all have been worth it? I’m referring to all the hours of student government, school clubs, all the late nights working on homework, the difficult classes like AP Chemistry and AP Calculus, the perfect attendance. “Will it be worth it?!” I keep asking myself.

Welcome back to 2021. That was kind of fun, diving back into an era of stress that I relive and reflect on from time to time. I was so young and trying to make sense of the world each day. It was a moment in time consumed by un-necessary yet understandable stress. I was 17 and throughout high school believed I needed to have a plan every step of the way. My plan included going to one specific school, and everything else would follow. As I quickly learned, I was not admitted into my goal school and the plans I had made did not necessarily follow, either.

With admission decisions rolling out, I hope everyone out there, especially all the LGBTQ soon-to-be college students of the world, know that no matter where you go, it will work out one way or another. It probably won’t be perfect and it probably won’t always make sense, but you have to go for it when the opportunities present themselves. Additionally, your educational trajectory will not be a linear experience if you don’t want it to.

I, for instance, was denied in 2014 from my goal school, and in 2019 graduated from that same university with a dual bachelor’s degree. All it took was starting out at a school that gave me a solid foundation to make it (and larger goals) happen.

This is my final semester of university until I start my PhD program a few years from now. I know I will miss being a student. I will miss having university anchor my daily life. But as Kahmora Hall said, “the show must go on!”

Well, here’s to spring 2021! We’re doing this, Joe!