It’s easy to get caught up in the many things we have to do as college students. Just worrying about classes and responsibilities held to any organization you’re a part of is enough to make you feel overwhelmed, and that’s before you put in social activities.

When I first became a college student, I was overwhelmed, too. There were so many things I had to do all at once, and I just couldn’t get everything done. Things ended between my serious girlfriend and me simply because I just couldn’t keep up.

Throughout my first year, I was heartbroken and depressed. I didn’t have many friends, and having lived in the same place throughout my time in high school I didn’t really know how to make them. I trudged along and made things happen with my grades, but my heart simply wasn’t in it.

Then, I joined the staff of The East Texan and everything changed. Suddenly I had a community of people that I was a part of; people that I could talk to and hang out with and who had the same interest as me. For the first time in a year, I was happy.

However, my best friend graduated last semester. I feared that with her departure, I would find myself back in the spiral of sadness that I couldn’t find my way out of in the year prior. But when this semester began, I remembered something that I had learned back when I was in high school.

In high school, one of my teachers was Mr. Miller. He was a very strange man. He came to the school when I was a sophomore and never really seemed to fit in. Most students hated his class and blew it off. Even many of the teachers avoided him and his eccentric personality. But, through it all, Mr. Miller was the happiest person I’ve ever come into contact with. No matter what was going on in his life, he had a smile on his face and was excited about where he was. The man enjoyed life. I never really understood it until he gave one of his many soliloquies in class that had nothing to do with teaching algebra. This time, I listened.

He talked about how the key to success was this: “Wherever you are, be there. You may not like your circumstances, but you must learn to be ok with them, give everything you do your all, and you can find happiness in anything.” Finally, after all of these years, I understand what he meant.