I get it. I was you. You’re nervous about starting college, and fair enough: who knows if this is going to be the right place for you?

Chances are, you’re not going to be the perfect student. You won’t always love the assignments, but you’ll come alive in the margins—tracing things back, asking your own questions. You’ll get some praise, sure—but also enough silence and uncertainty to make you doubt your footing. College is hard: your GPA is probably not what it was, but that can be one of the best things to happen to you. You hopefully learn other ways of measuring growth, and you’ll meet people who see what you’re made of even if the transcript doesn’t.

In time, you’ll find your people. It takes a while, but when it clicks, it really clicks. Play your cards right, and you’ll get something that feels like home: gathering mentors who consistently go to bat for you, friends who see the long game, and a self that doesn’t fold.

No one ever quite knows how they keep landing on their feet. But somehow, most do—through some mix of the grace of others and a resilience of their own.

You won’t always see the shape of what you’re building while you’re in the middle of it. But stay with it. Something durable, and fitting, is finding its way toward you.

With affection,

T