Over the course of the year my happiness has grown. I spent high school believing I always had to make sacrifices to be successful. I was the student who couldn’t go out late because all I had time for was wrestling and schoolwork. I took hard classes and stayed up late struggling to complete my homework that rarely taught me anything. Now, I workout on my own time. I eat on my own time. I hang out with friends and I do homework on my own time. I sleep more than 8 hours a day, am in better shape than I have ever been, have the greatest friend group I could imagine and my grades are better than they were in high school. Even though my grades in college matter much more than they did in high school, I don’t have panic attacks before big tests and  large projects like I did in high school. My newfound independence has allowed me to learn what works best for me, to learn what is important to me, and to learn who I am.