By: Darcie Paterson

I never thought I could do it. I never thought I could make that transition and move three hours away from my little home in Napanee to Oakville and begin a new life. Now, here I am getting ready to graduate and could not imagine being anywhere else in the world.

I was always the type of person who didn't like being away from home. I had big dreams, but no courage to actually go through with them. When it came time to apply for college, I couldn't do it, I had to put it off for a year and decide what I wanted in my life. After much deliberation, and spending way too much time with my parents, I decided I needed to get out of there.

Starting a new school can be so hard; fortunately, I had two of my best friends attending Sheridan as well. Even still, beginning classes and not knowing anyone was difficult. But three girls made it so much easier for me by introducing themselves and sharing the same fears that I had. They were Courtney Whalen, Amanda Goodman, and Heather Nielsen.

As time went on, I became closer with those girls and began making friends with many of the people in my class and everyone began forming their own little cliques.

All of these people have contributed to such memorable experiences. Whether it's trying to find our way home with a very questionable map, getting the group to go out for Jimmy's birthday (who ended up being really sick), or witnessing classmates yelling at each other as our stress levels ran pretty high.

Then there were the times when all we wanted was for the very opinionated Michelle to keep her mouth shut, or I was trying to convince Ryan and Jimmy that I hated the nickname Aaaaarcieee, (when I actually secretly liked it). It showed a sense of closeness, nothing like I had ever felt with any group of friends before.

Whoever said that you find your lifelong friends during college was right. Now that the end is coming, I don't want to go, I want to continue being around these people for years to come. When you spend every day with the people in your course, you turn in to a family. And I just don't know if I'm ready to leave this family yet.

These friends are the ones that I've found I can count on for anything and everything. Whenever there was a huge assignment due the next day, I always knew I'd have some company in the newsroom that had also put it off 'till the last minute. And there were always journalists ready and willing to critique and edit my stories. Or to provide support for something that I had written and wasn't too confident of.

Now when I write this final story for the Sheridan Sun Online, with tears in my eyes, I remember all of the good times. I will forever be grateful to all of the classmates, friends, teachers, and any others who helped these two years become the greatest time of my life. I know that I made the right decision when I came to Sheridan College.