I believe that the time for change is now. I'm approaching the end of my first year of college and I have come far from where I started. I've recently moved into my first apartment and even found a job, working retail at American Apparel. These past ten months have been the most significant, I believe, in making me realize who I am and who I am becoming. So many of my beliefs and feelings have changed, almost nothing was what I thought it would be. Although it has been difficult and stressful, I'm using this experience to my advantage. I am out to make some real changes in how I live and who I feel I should be based on what I know now - and actions start with words. I can't coast by anymore on my presumptions from days past and hope things come my way. I have been very lucky thus far in my life with having to do little or nothing and for that I am grateful. But now I need to awaken. It sounds corny and cliché even as I type it but it's true. I'm here for a reason and that reason is not to just exist, but to live. I need to live.