High school finals are not that bad.

Coming from a very rigorous academic high school, I can genuinely say your high school finals are not that bad. They may seem awful, but believe me when I say they are not. You may feel beyond stressed out, but you will survive. Make good study habits now, because you will need them in college.

Savor every second with your closest friends.

Especially those friends who have chosen a different college path than you. This will be one of the last breaks you have to spend with them before your lives change. You will regret not spending time with them this Christmas, as your spring semester will fly by before you realize it. Between prom, spring break, and graduation, it will feel like you blinked and you’re trying on caps and gowns. Blink again and you’ll be standing at your school surrounded by your classmates for the final time. It’s especially important to savor this time if you plan to work the summer after graduating to start saving money for college.

Start saving money now.

Since I brought up the topic of money, start saving it now. You will thank me later. I didn’t believe my friends and family when they told me I would wish I had saved more, but they were right. Between weekly trips to Walmart and trying to get off campus at least once or twice a month, I blew through most of my money quickly. Granted, I do have a full kitchen in my dorm, so I spent a little more money on ingredients to cook than most students at other campuses. Don’t work your entire summer away, but do spend a lot of it working. Sometimes you need to get off campus and treat yourself, so having extra money always helps.

Accept help while it is still offered.

I am the first to admit I spent senior year exploring my freedom, especially once my 18^th birthday rolled around. One of my biggest regrets of senior year is not accepting my parent’s offers to help me with homework or with errands. In college, there is no one there to help you when you’re struggling to get out of bed at 8:00 in the morning. There is no one there to make sure you get to the doctor when you don’t feel good. There’s no one there to drive you places. Accept the help while it’s offered.

Be a child.

In college, you have to grow up fast. Sure, you can party and live a wild lifestyle, but ultimately you’re paying thousands of dollars for an education. Suddenly you’re on your own and have to wake yourself up for class, manage your own time, and take care of yourself. So savor the time you have left of being a child.

Phone calls are the best thing since sliced bread.

Personally, my mom is one of my best friends. I didn’t see that until I was 200 miles away at school and something exciting happened and I wasn’t able to run home and tell her about it. I quickly learned the importance of a phone call. I talk to my mom at least three times a week. Usually I call her and she ignores my call, and an hour later she’ll call me in the middle of class. We go back and forth with phone tag until she’s finally home and I’m finally in my dorm. We may not talk for more than five minutes, but those five minutes make my mom’s day and mine better. Another huge highlight of my week is being able to call my grandmother and hear how happy she gets when she realizes it’s me on the other end of the phone. So make those phone calls, because they may only be five minutes out of your day, but they mean the world to your family back home.

Don’t let senioritis control you.

At my high school, senioritis started around fall break of junior year, and progressively got worse until graduation. But don’t let senioritis control you. Don’t become so lazy and focused on graduation that you slide by. Remember that your GPA matters, your grades matter, and the quality of your work matters. When it comes time for recommendations, you don’t want teachers to remember you by average grades that barely cut it. Yes, senioritis is real, and it has prevented students from graduating on time. Don’t let that happen to you.

Congratulations on making it this far, and I hope the rest of your senior year is amazing and everything you ever hoped it would be!