I was never really nervous about graduating, to be honest. I feel like I should have been freaking out based on numerous sitcom graduation episodes. Honestly, I am excited for the next chapter of my life. But that doesn’t mean I won’t miss Northwestern dearly.

My time at NU got off to a bit of a rocky start. I came to campus freshman year a few weeks before Wildcat Welcome to participate in marching band camp. My mom, brother and I took a red-eye flight from Austin, Texas, and landed in Chicago at about 9 a.m. We started driving in the wrong direction and ended up around Hoffman Estates, Illinois, before my brother pointed out we were driving in the exact opposite direction of Evanston. We drove back and settled me into my residence hall where I got locked in the restroom (seriously, they were doing renovations and the lock was broken). My mom had to call campus authorities, who sent a locksmith to get me out of the bathroom. It was a pretty terrible start to my first day of college.

Freshman year was also a tough year. I called home almost every day. I had also dropped my pre-med plans before the year started — which ended up being one of the greatest decisions of my life — and had no idea what I wanted to study, causing me to take a computer science class that frustrated me to no end.

But after freshman year, things got a lot better. I found a lot of great friends from all around campus and picked a course of study I have really enjoyed. I made a lot of great memories, like seeing Northwestern beat Notre Dame (and crying with the game-winning kick), going to the ESPN College GameDay set on the Lakefill and conquering my fear of tall roller coasters by riding Raging Bull at Six Flags.

I have also had a lot of fun writing this column. My parents have always said that I have an opinion on everything, so writing for The Daily Northwestern was the perfect outlet for me to express myself. I started writing about sports culture in general, occasionally dabbling in NU sports, but then moved onto more general topics around campus culture. I hope that my columns about learning the alma mater, NU’s sometimes tacky commercials and fixing SafeRide have made some kind of an influence on campus. And I am proud to say that I have a paper copy of every single one of my columns, so I can make myself a nice sentimental scrapbook to one day show my kids.

I am surely sad to leave NU, but I am excited to be an alumna and look back on my experience fondly. I even bought myself a little NU pennant to hang on my desk at work. And I can’t wait to come back to campus for Homecoming next year, for my reunions after that and to one day show my kids the beautiful place I went to college — maybe even giving them an application to fill out.

Thanks for all the great memories, Northwestern. I am not crying because it’s over — I am smiling because it happened.

Meredith Goodman is a Weinberg Class of 2015 graduate. She can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].