Nia Lartey, a freshman at George Washington University, participated in the 2018 Acel Moore workshop. This is her third blog post on her college experience.

In the year a high school senior graduates, a lot of changes can happen — and happen real fast. I was no exception to these giddy transformations.

You go from having most of your day planned by outside influencers (i.e. your teachers, administrators, parents), to being in the driver’s seat and setting your day. You may go from living at home to living miles away. Really, you take a big jump towards what the youths of today refer to as “adulting.”

I graduated high school with an Afro and now complain if my hair is longer than the tip of my fingernail. I went from living in Pennsylvania all my life to walking the streets of D.C. as if I’d owned them forever. Images I only saw in textbooks, such as Supreme Court, the Washington Monument or The White House are now just a stone’s throw away.

This year I’ve seen a lot of changes in myself, some for the better (sleep isn’t always for the weak…sometimes) and some for the worst (I used to be able to jump out of bed at 5 a.m.; now, I can barely wake up anytime before 9).

I also easily forget that most of the past year was spent not actually in college, but preparing for it. I left 18 years of public school education for a private one, and after I walked off Temple’s stage in June as class president, I walked into a dorm hall in August where dozens of other people had that title or similar ones at their respective high schools.

I’ve met (and learned) a lot from my peers that I’ve met here. I’ve formed friendships that I know will reach their expiration date sooner rather than later, and others I hope will last a lifetime. All in all, my first semester at George Washington was awesome, and I’m especially grateful to God for helping me through it.

That’s not to say it was perfect. There are definitely changes I need to make during winter semester. For one, I’m trying to find the perfect balance between academics and my social life.

But I’m excited. I get to take Introduction to News Writing with a former White House Correspondent Association president, and even though I thoroughly believe math is mental abuse to humans, my statistics class is the only math class I’ll ever have to take at GW.

Unlike 2018, which was filled with live events (the prom, senior class trip, graduation, move-in day to name a few),   I don’t know what awaits me in 2019.

But I’m here for the ride, and right now, that’s all I really care about.