I’ll never forget the feelings I had when I was preparing to leave high school. As a junior and senior of Wauseon High, I remember feeling so alone when I saw just how eager my peers were to leave. To me, high school began as a frightening and dangerous place that could destroy you (a bit overdramatic, I know). Somewhere in the midst of it all, though, I came to rely and depend on high school; a sort of security blanket, I suppose. By the time I left, I had complete assimilated into the high school structure. As I got up to speak during graduation, as I delivered the words I had prepared days earlier, I realized that I couldn’t look back anymore. I had to look forward to the future, because going back isn’t all it’s cracked-up to be, especially when you have the potential to help others.

I’m just now finishing up my undergraduate experience. It’s hard to believe that four years have gone by already. Again, it’s almost like déjà vu. I don’t know what’s different this time around, but I’ve been more and more antsy to leave. I’m ready to enter into the “real” world, “real” life. I recently was accepted into the doctoral program for clinical psychology at the University of Detroit Mercy. I want to do therapy, to help others if I can. I want to see if I have what it takes, because I believe in people. It’s the difference between a job and profession. Because I have the potential to really help people, because I really believe in it, I want to be a clinical psychologist; I want to contribute to the real world.

However, just as before, there’s something else that’s been building-up recently. I’m slowly realizing that there’s really no such thing as real life, this is as real as it gets, and that ain’t half bad. In a way, I know I’m really going to miss Heidelberg and all the memories it’s given me. But I wouldn’t go back. Because going back isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially when you have the potential to help others.