I’m beyond ecstatic; over the weekend I got accepted into my dream school, the University of Georgia. These past few days have been super happy ones, filled with celebration and relief. However, I’ve also realized that I am going to be leaving a seemingly large high school and stepping into an unknowingly huge world. Lambert has a couple of thousand students; that is absolutely zilch compared to the over thirty thousand students at UGA. One time, a former University of Georgia student told me, “As awesome as UGA is, you are just a number there.” This really made me think. On campus, I may seem like just another Bulldog on the street. But in the real world, I won’t even be labeled as a UGA student, just one of the seven billion people populating this earth.

I recently stumbled upon a word for an emotion that everyone has felt at some point in time, but couldn’t explain: occhiolism. “Occhiolism” is the awareness of the smallness of one’s perspective. Sometimes, when I lay awake in bed in the middle of the night, unable to sleep, thoughts jumble my mind. This feeling of occhiolism has overtaken me on many occasions. The realization that I, along with most everyone in this world, have the smallest amount of significance; time is always passing, people are born and people die, the human race continues to fill the gaps of life while residing on a miniscule planet floating in the blackness of the universe.

As easy as it is in high school, where one can be so easily known and successful, it is nowhere near the same in the adult world. When entering such a place so young, so inexperienced, life hits people so unexpectedly. It can be easy to feel small and alone. However, this feeling of occhiolism should not totally interfere with someone’s ambitions and wants. No one can control the amount of humans that are living or the fact that Earth is but one of many things in space (and probably not the only place with living things). Nevertheless, everyone should live the life they have to the fullest. As cliché as that sounds, why live a life thinking about how insignificant you are to others? Instead, make life significant enough for yourself and make yourself happy.

Going to college, be aware that the world is a big place, but that you are still important.

I am Jessica Borla, and I am a second semester senior here at Lambert High School. I am SO ready to get out of Forsyth County and go on new adventures in college. However, it has just recently hit me that my whole life that I’ve known here is coming to an end very soon; I do not want to take it all for granted. My column, “Last Lambert Moments”, is specifically for seniors, capturing how to make the best out of the final months, weeks, days at Lambert.