For those who do not know me, hi, my name is Ji Min Margarett Lee and I have been admitted to the University of Pennsylvania for the upcoming fall semester. I am so grateful for this opportunity and beyond excited to attend the school of my dreams; however, as the days go by and graduation slowly nears, I have been asking myself, “am I ready for college?”

At a quick glance, I answer right away, yes. I am so ready for college. After countless nights of going to bed at 4 AM, consuming way too many cans of Monster, completing endless piles of homework and projects, and pushing my mental and physical health to the edge, it is safe to say that I am ready to take on any challenges that come my way. I am ready to take on the higher education and choose courses that I am interested in and to explore a completely new location after living in California for over ten years.

Yet, there is a little voice in my head that tells me that I might not be completely ready. I, a nineteen-year-old senior, made a realization last week that I do not know how to cook, how to do laundry, how to go grocery shopping (except to buy Monster), how to handle money, and basically how to do adult things. But, I can still learn how to complete these types of adult tasks, so I shouldn’t feel too stressed, right? It turns out, it was not the realization of my lack of skills to complete basic human chores that I was scared about; it was the fact that I would not be returning to California once I leave after graduation that made my heart feel heavy.

I guess saying goodbye is not as easy as I thought it would be. Although I am beyond excited to leave this town and never come back, I guess there are just some things I will miss. For example, I will miss stargazing at 12 AM with my friends at the mountaintop or just driving around late at night with no traffic. I will miss the crazy stories I would tell people when I would encounter them (for example someone getting arrested in my neighborhood). I will miss seeing all my friends that I made in Key Club, spanning from Sacramento all the way down to San Diego. I guess I have some bittersweet feelings about leaving California overall.

But I am excited to leave and make new memories. I am looking forward to exploring and conquering the new city that I will be in and making tons of new friends. I am ecstatic to hear about all my old friends’ adventures in their new colleges and see where we end up in a few years.

I think that I am ready for college — I mean, I really hope I am at least. I guess we will see in the fall.