A college acceptance tells you where you’ll study. It doesn’t tell you who you’ll be.

An acceptance letter settles a question about location and almost nothing else. It cannot tell you what you will care about, who you will know, how you will handle being away, or what you will do with the years. People attach enormous identity to the name on the envelope and then discover that character gets decided afterwards by ordinary choices. The letter is an address rather than a verdict.

Whatever the answer turns out to be, write down two things you want to be true of you by the end. A skill, a habit, a kind of friend.