Sometimes it’s hard, but you must sit back and let things happen. Dwelling on the past and worrying about the future will do nothing for you. The world is harsh — we do not need to be mean and punish ourselves for things that we cannot control. Instead, we should take our worries, let them go and embrace the unknown.

The little moments in life are the ones we rush past and move on from so quickly — but these are the moments when you need to pause, take a deep breath and recognize the people you are with, the feelings you are having and that they are fleeting. You are all growing, but you’re growing together — and that's enough. Embrace the long dinners at the dining hall, where you're just sitting and talking about nothing, the nights full of laughs and not enough sleep and the bad jokes cracked to try and get someone to stop crying. These are the moments that define your life, not the number of times you got an award or your grade on your last midterm.

I spend all year waiting for fall — it’s such a beautiful time of year. And in a city like Boston, fall is not just a season but an experience, greeting locals like a familiar face and enthralling new students and visitors with its beauty. Oliver explores this feeling of completeness in “Song for Autumn,” even though it consists of leaves dying, birds migrating and ponds freezing over. In autumn, the world enters a state of calm and completion.