During my first week at NYU, I walked into the WSN office for an open house, spoke with the Beauty and Style Editor and a week later, attended my first runway show at my first New York Fashion Week. I was pretty confident I would end up in the fashion industry — I wasn’t going to be one of those people who said they wanted to work in fashion but couldn’t actually handle it. I could not have imagined I would become the new BStyle Editor the very next semester, running NYFW coverage myself. It turns out the fashion industry doesn’t have many internships, so I currently work in news doing social media, but that first week at NYU showed me that I made the right choice when I decided where to go to college. I knew that having access to the sheer number of opportunities available to NYU students was enough to get me where I wanted to go.

My time at NYU has truly flown by. I absolutely hated high school, but college has completely reinvigorated my love of learning. If I can impart any wisdom — though I don’t have much — it would be to take advantage of NYU’s study abroad opportunities. I actually regret not going abroad a second time, but I’m not sure any city can top my love of Prague anyway. Daily trdelniks, near-weekly trips to Prague Castle and countless walks along quiet, cobblestone streets will remain some of my favorite NYU memories. This school has an incredible study abroad program, and there is no semester that will be as valuable to you as the one you spend in a new city.

I feel like a bit of a fraud writing this, because in all honesty, I’m a junior. Before you stop reading, I am in fact graduating in two weeks. I’m graduating a full year early — #humblebrag — but I’m actually terrified. People keep telling me that by graduating early, I will be missing out on some magical aspects of college life that I will never be able to get back. But I don’t feel like much will change. I will be living in the same apartment with the same people in the same city doing the same job, so what’s the big deal? Am I rushing into adulthood without stopping to breathe? Maybe, but it’s also one less year of exams to suffer through, so I still feel like I’m coming out net positive.

I think this is the part where I’m supposed to get deep. My writing has been kind of all over the place, but that’s just the way my mind works. I’ve always described myself as scatterbrained — the adjective even inspired the name of my blog once upon a time. Others see it as a detriment, since I can never focus on one thing for very long without stopping to do something else — but I’ve started to embrace it, because it means I see every moment as an opportunity. I’m realizing that one of the greatest things NYU has given me is a strong sense of self, and that is truly priceless — or worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the jury’s still out.

Email Sophie Lewis at [email protected].