Full Circle

The weird thing about education is how many circles you go through. You start as the freshman in high school, slightly confused and looking up, seeing you've got four years to spend here before you're part of the big guys on campus. The Seniors! And once that comes around and you graduate, you're back at the beginning: Freshies again! And it's three or four or five more years till you can happily brag about being a senior and almost done with college.
Getting ready for my third turn around the circle is even weirder. There were so many differences between high school and college that everything was still new and exciting, and I didn't mind being a college freshman. It was waaay better than being a senior, if you ask me. The freedom was invigorating. And a bit too intoxicating too, sometimes. But now, the differences between college and grad school isn't much, except I'm sure this time is gonna be a huge step up in intensity. But the rest is sort of the same: the nervousness of the uncertainty of where I'm going to end up, thinking about what to pack and what to leave behind (although this time I'm sure a much larger amount of things are going to get packed up as I'm sort of sure I'm not going to be permanently living at home anymore), and where I'm gonna live for four + years.
And now I've got to sit down and fill out my FAFSA for the first time since high school to boot. Ahhh loans!!!! Noooooooooo! Lol, it is about time, I suppose. I was super lucky my parents supported me so much, paying for my undergrad and even my housing, too. But now it's time to stand on my own two wobbly legs. Which means being massively in debt, but oh well.
Sometimes, I feel I didn't enjoy college as much as I could have. I didn't go out much, and actually didn't make any lasting friends, either. It was the weirdest thing; most of the friends I made in college were people I knew from high school but didn't hang out with. But I'm definitely hoping med school will be different. Hell, I'm way different. But with any circle and journey, I'm sure that's to be expected.