As these last few weeks wind down, I find myself thinking more and more of the Walking Song from “The Lord of the Rings.”

More importantly, the first few lines Pippin sings in “Return of The King.”

These lines speak so much truth to me that I have decided to decorate my graduation cap to have the words. But they couldn’t be any more true than what I’ve experienced.

I’ve been in school all my life. I haven’t known anything different. Twelve years of “normal” school, two years of community college and two years of university. I’ve learned many things, changed who I am several times and had many different ideals affect my state of being and thought.

And yet, in less than a month I’ll be in a completely different setting.

As excited as I am to finally be done and do something different with my life, experience new things, and say “No more ten page research papers!,” I’m terrified all at the same time.

I’ll have to pay bills, refigure and refine myself in this new world, keep in contact with my friends that I’ve made here at ESU, plan for a life I want outside the US and maybe cry myself to sleep a few nights in a row.

I joke about the crying myself to sleep, but real talk, it’s a scary thing to step outside of something you’ve known your whole life.

So, I sympathize with all the terrified seniors in the same boat as me. Your home that you’ve known will soon be behind you, and the world is ahead.

But there are many paths besides the one we just walked, and this isn’t the end of the line for us.

We’ll be scared, we could face the armies of Mordor and not have a single idea on how to save Middle Earth, but we’ll bare through it.

Because that’s how we’ve dealt with change before this point, and we’ll do it again.