This space has been reserved for me for several weeks now. It is a space where I'm supposed to bid farewell to Penn State through a few hundred words in a senior column.

It's something we at the Collegian begin thinking about our freshman year -- our tone, our message, our last words printed in the pages of the Collegian. So, of course, I had a plan about what I wanted to write.

Then I came down to the office Monday and learned about the Virginia Tech tragedy.

My plan changed.

Decades from now, when somebody asks me what memory stands out the most from my college career, I'll tell them about one chilly Saturday night in October 2005, when I screamed until my lungs gave out along with 110,000 people, watching Ohio State players leave Beaver Stadium with their heads down, helmets in hand.

I sang "Oh, what a night!" at them as loud as I could, hugging everyone around me.

I was finally a student at the school I knew I'd be attending since my first football game -- when I was three months old.

And it was quite a night.

I'll tell them about how it felt as if the stadium itself was shaking in excitement from the game. I'll tell them that I'll never forget the feeling I got when Tamba Hali turned Troy Smith's world upside down in the final quarter of the game and Scott Paxson fell on the ball, allowing Penn State fans to let loose the joy they had been holding in for so long.

I'll relive those goosebumps for the rest of my life.

And then I think about what seniors at Virginia Tech will answer when asked what they remember most about their last year as a Hokie -- and it humbles me.

Will they remember their football games? Or will they remember the panic and fear they felt, unsure of what was happening while their campus was being torn apart -- scared for themselves, their friends and their peers.

I can't imagine that the goosebumps they'll get when retelling their stories will feel quite the same as mine.

My time at Penn State has been unbelievable. I'll never forget the football games or the feeling I got watching friends, family and strangers work together to help beat a vicious disease. I'll remember laughing until my sides hurt with the friends who turned into family in the James Building.

I won't forget spending lazy warm afternoons at the Café or lazier Saturday nights eating takeout and doing nothing with my boyfriend. It wasn't untilI came to Penn State that I realized how much I had at home -- unbelievable parents, a built in best friend and constant laughter.

A part of me will always instantly connect with anyone who wears Penn State apparel, and I'll never fully trust anyone from Michigan.

But I also will always remember how I lucky I was that those are the kinds of memories I'll take with me.

There are thousands of college campuses across the country and hundreds of thousands of people on them each day.

We all call ourselves by different names -- Nittany Lions, Wolverines, Aggies, Hokies -- but when it comes down to it, we're all college students.

What happened at Virginia Tech on Monday morning could have happened anywhere.

It's true that nothing unites a community like tragedy.

For the next few days, we may be Nittany Lions, but I believe many of us will cheer for the Hokies as well. We'll wear ribbons, join Facebook groups and mourn with the Virginia Tech nation.

In a few weeks I'll get my diploma with my fellow seniors, and thousands of VA Tech seniors will do the same.

But while I'll spend my next few weeks here trying to immortalize Penn State in my mind, I'll imagine they'll be mourning, a bittersweet end to their college years.

It's been said that college is the best time of your life. I don't believe that. I think it's a horribly pessimistic view of the future.

College is a time to grow, to learn, to be irresponsible and to laugh. But most of all it's a time we learn what it's like to be part of a community. That's what I found at Penn State -- a Nittany Lion nation. A community of support that extends past color, gender, religion or geographic boundaries. I'll be a citizen of that community until the day I die.

I'll leave a part of me in State College when I go, and I'll always be a Nittany Lion at heart. But when I think back on the last few weeks of my senior year, a part of me will always be stained with maroon and orange.