Lost in the world that is myself

As I get older and more experienced with the world, I find that for everything I come to understand, there are twice that many more things that I don't.
And as I find myself sitting here at my computer desk at 3:30 am, 3/4's of the way through my freshman year of college, I can't help but wonder if there will ever be a time that I will really understand or find for that matter my place in this world.
It's like I find myself at a crossroads in my life, wondering where I'll go, and how I'll end up there.

I find myself compelled to examine my relationships with the others around me, and I wonder... how have I made my mark in this world, and in their lives? If I were to just disappear in the next moment, what would I be remembered for? or would I even be remembered? I like to think that my family and close friends from highschool would be affected in some way or another, but what about the people I've met in my time here? what do they even think of me now?
Now I'm by no means the kind of person who hinges upon the opinion or approval of others, but that doesn't mean that not unlike most humans, I seek some acceptance and acknowledgment from others, in my life. Which might in turn be the problem; I find that I end up going from being too shy to too unreserved when it comes to meeting new people which in turns ends up having the opposite of the intended effect.

And so I wonder if perhaps our reliance upon first impressions is riddled with fallacies, we never truly understand someone when we meet them or even after we've know them for months, because everyone has some reservations, everyone keeps that mask that they hide things behind, and there lies their true character. Even after a few months when a friend turns from very introverted to extroverted, it doesn't mean that, that's who they've always been or all they always will be, but it is how they are at the time. And so I can't help but wonder if we aren't in general too hasty in our attempt to classify and judge others that we miss out on who they truly are, and lose out on the opportunities of ever knowing them.

So reader if you're still with me up until this point, I'd like to ask you to do something:
take a moment out of your day, and try to reach out and connect with someone that you don't really know all that well, now I'm not saying go up to some stranger and try to be their best friend right off the bat, but that you just try to understand someone and let yourself be understood by someone a little better, it may end up being that defining moment in which you make your mark upon someone else's life, or perhaps they make their mark on yours.

Life is short, so let every moment count