One month into college, I suddenly feel like I’ve just woken up from a dream. For the first time, I actually take note of my surroundings when I walk around. I can recall the first couple days after moving in, the days of overwhelming consumption of new places, faces, classes, responsibilities, freedom… but today as I’m crossing Grand and walking toward yet another meal at CafÈ Mac, something feels different.

Maybe it’s the realization I had earlier this week that I had actually been at college for one month; maybe it was talking to my parents and inadvertently referred to Mac as “home.” Maybe it was talking to friends, both from here and from my hometown, who had returned home for the weekend and hearing how odd it felt to not be at school but also how normal it felt to be in the home in which they had grown up, around the people they’ve actually known their entire lives. Maybe it was waking up the morning after my roommate and I rearranged our furniture in a frantic effort to procrastinate on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe it was spending a sleepless night in bed contemplating the depth of the bonds I’ve already been able to create with people. Maybe it’s just something new in the crisp fall air today.

Whatever it is, today feels like more than just another new day. I’m hit full force with the realization that I’m actually no longer a child or young teenager with the semi-comprehension that one day I’ll move out of my parents’ house and go off to that fantasy land people call college. Somehow in the daze of my first month at college I settled into a new life without even understanding that was what I was actually doing.

But today. Walking across campus, I’m breathing deeply. I’m sucking in not only the brisk early morning Minnesota Fall air, I’m inhaling my surroundings. The way the sunlight hits the beautiful red brick of our campus center, the way the vibrant leaves stand out against the crystal blue sky with which I’ve already fallen in love. Walking past people, I suddenly realize that I actually recognize faces in the crowd, and I smile as I see someone who I can now comfortably call a friend. I’m adjusting to eating the same food at lunch and dinner, having breaks in between my classes, going to meetings at 10 at night, using the term “SPO,” remembering to check my school e-mail, and so much more.

I’m walking behind a group of people when I suddenly realize that it’s a campus tour, and I’m so tempted to stop and share my new revelation. I want to tell these “PFs” how easy it is to grow to love Mac, how quickly I found myself comfortable with the idea that I would spend the next four years of my life growing and learning here. I am at college now, I’ve been here for a month. And while I’m still adjusting to an entirely new life, I woke up today understanding that I’ll always have the life I created for myself before Mac. I’m well on my way to finding my new life here.