By: Rebecca Burford

I came into college as a Jane Doe: A complete and total copy and paste of my high school comrades.

For 14 years of my life, I was surrounded by the same group of 500 people. From preschool all the way through my senior year of high school, I followed the rules and social guidelines instilled by these same 500 people. Of course I was a Jane Doe. I was unoriginal, unidentified and you could not pull me out of the crowd, because that’s how you survive high school. You lay low, blend in, you stay a Jane Doe. So, what happens when you leave that pool of the same 500 people who used to govern the way you walked, spoke, dressed, ate and looked at life?

You break free.

Welcome to EMU, Jane Doe. Welcome to an environment where you can wear stripped knee high socks with plaid pants and a Band-T without anyone looking at you strange, whispering behind your back or spreading rumors around the campus. Welcome to the stage in your life where you can look that plain, unoriginal, lost in the crowd, blurred, hidden, misunderstood, carbon copy Jane Doe in the eyes and give her a name. Give her a presence. This is the time in life where you can finally take control of who you think you are and who you want to be.

I’m not saying this is going to be easy. Finding out who you really are requires traveling down a road littered with bumps, pot holes and even ditches and cliffs. Just know that it is okay to fall, because every bruise becomes a story, and every story becomes you. You are not Jane Doe anymore. Welcome to EMU, where you are finally allowed to be you.