I'm not going to cry...i'm not going to cry..

How do you sum up four and a half years?

Four and a half years that have taken you from

being shy and reserved to open and outgoing.

The school you HATED is now the school you love.

The people who were strangers to you are now people you don't want to leave.

I'll be honest, i'm sitting here writing this with tears in my eyes.

In fact one just landed on my cheek.

Coming to the end of an era is hard.

Leaving friends is hard.

Leaving Harding is hard.

It's funny because when i started school

here my love for this place was sub zero.

And now it's hard to imagine myself anywhere else.

It's weird how that happens.

I'm sad and i'm not sad, all at the same time.

I'm sad to leave friends and to say goodbye to 

the professors that I've grown to love.

My school is small, about 6,000 students small.

Which means we sometimes only have about 20 people in a class.

Small classes lead to building relationships with the professors.

The Professors i've had over the past 2 years all know me by name.

We joke in the halls after we learn from them in the classroom.

It's an incredible atmosphere that i'm really going to miss.

But like i said, i'm also not sad.

Not sad because i'm just so excited.

Excited to start fresh, i have an entirely different

perspective on starting fresh then i had 4 years ago.

What's more exciting than having the whole world as your oyster.

You can go out there and do anything, there are so many possibilities.

I'm just feeling really positive about this change.

Even though it will be hard and contrary

to what i wrote a week ago i will be very nostalgic,

it's still a very exciting time and i'm ready to take it on.

I'm proud of the person i've become during the time

i've spent here at Harding University.

I'm more outgoing, i care deeper, i love harder,

I believe in adventure and not worrying so much.

Harding has changed my life, even though we've had our

ups and downs over the past 4 years i can still say

with complete certainty that this place is magical

and i'm so happy to have been apart of it.

I want to take a quick second to publicly apologize

to my parents for putting you through my silly freshman year drama.

And i want to thank them for putting me through school.

For letting me chase my dreams here in the USA and around the world.

For being the BEST parents in the whole wide world.

And for loving me unconditionally.

So with that being said...

It's be real HU

Catch ya on the flip side.

I GRADUATE TOMORROW!!

Congrats to everyone graduating this December!!

-Em