I’ve been through a fair amount of relatively drastic change in the past few years of my life. The stages between graduating from middle school, going through high school, and then moving away for college and huge years of growth and both social and emotional change for everyone. From big things such a death in the family to smaller adversity’s like breakups and heartbreak, being a teenager and entering into your early twenties are a time to learn.

Since 2017 started I have powered through many mental, social, and familial challenges in my attempts to stay positive. Things aren’t always easy, and change can be extremely difficult. Going after what you want sometimes means giving up something else for it. Going to school on the other side of the country from your best friends means that you might drift from them at times. Being a transfer such as myself means that you won’t always have that tight knit group of friends—your “day ones"—from freshman year. There are an endless amount of possibilities that can uproot the norm.

I was going through a particularly emotional time in my life when I was finishing up Jane the Virgin’s most recent season (don’t worry I’m not here to spoil anything). After an extremely devastating change in Jane’s life, her abuela is comforting her. She tells her: “Life will be beautiful again. Just in different ways." It is easy to say things like this, but harder to understand them and believe them in times of difficult change and grief.

Despite this, it is so important to remember this. Even when we feel like nothing will ever be the same and like what we are going through is going to ruin everything, we must remember that though things change, life goes on. And life will be beautiful again in different ways.