// introductions.

Hiya! I’m Emma Cathy Smith. I’m an almost 18 year old who is almost ready to start my sophomore year of college and who is certain that the next three years will be the most eye-opening ride of my entire life (if the past year was any indication).

I’ve recently started an interesting journey of self-development. I want to say it began towards the end of my senior year, when my longest relationship ended. When he broke up with me, I remember telling myself (after the usual meltdown, of course) that I only had one week to let it weigh me down. You see, at the time, I was about to graduate. The next step of my life was about to start, whether I was ready or not, and I didn’t want the heaviness of it to prevent me from experiencing all I could.

Now, a year later, I can say I’ve experienced a lot – more than I could’ve ever imagined. As a freshman who started college with virtually no expectations, I left everything to the wind and hoped that my experiences would be meaningful. That was definitely the case; good and bad, I learned a lot through every experience that came my way, and I credit it mainly to my open-mindedness walking in.

I’ve gone through this part of my life with the mentality I discovered through that break-up; I’ve let myself live in the positive moments, and have given myself enough time to reflect on the bad (without it ruining my progress). My freshman year of college was definitely eventful, but I have ended it with my head held high and a resolve to continue my journey with the same mindset. I’ll be sure to keep you posted as I go along.

So…yeah. That’s my introduction. I intend for this blog to be a collection of my thoughts as I continue to reflect on the experiences I’ve had, and the experiences yet to come. It is my hope that I can be totally honest, not only with you, but with myself. If there’s one way college has changed me personally, it has taught me to always be honest and straightforward. There’s no point in cutting corners, and this applies especially to yourself. This – among many others – are things that I have learned, and I’m very excited to now have the chance to share it with you.