For this years high school seniors, the school year is coming to a close. Your high school career is coming to an end, the life you have lived for the past 4 years is becoming a set of memories, and you and your friends are about to take a big step into the next chapter of your lives. College is coming soon and there are only three short months until you all move away from the town in which you have most likely spent a good part of your life. College is a great chapter of ones life but there are always a few things to remember about change throughout life.

Freshman year of college is one of the best years of your life. You move to a brand new town, in which you can do whatever you want because everything is on you. The responsibility is yours to eat, clean, do your homework, and to make sure you get enough sleep. While some things seem to be tough to adjust to, there are some good things about it too; meeting new friends, getting to go out and enjoy the weekend, and getting to live your life to your speed. On the other hand, while all of this is happening, all of these amazing new things in your life, it is important to remember where you came from and the people that shaped you to be the person that you are today. Remembering these things could possibly be the most important thing that you could do while living this new life that you are living.

When you get to school, you may be overwhelmed and consumed by the new environment in which you are in. The people you meet will become your friends at school and possibly friends you will grow close to for the years to come, but it is very important to keep the friends that know you the best. When I got to school, I met a lot of amazing people that will be my friends for the foreseeable future, but at the same time, I made it a point to stay in touch with my friends from back home. The greatest importance in doing this is that the friends that you have grown up with are the friends that know everything about you, the friends that have always been by your side, and the friends that you will continue to be friends with all the way through college and beyond. Your friends from home are the people who made you who you are and are the friends who you get to go home to and tell them about the new life you are living. These friends are the most important.

As well as continuing a relationship with your friends from home, it is important to remember your roots; your high school, your town, and your hobbies. While you explore new hobbies and activities at a brand new school, in a brand new town, it is important to remember where you came from. It is important to make it a point to go home once in a while and to visit your town and high school with the friends that you grew up with. By making a point to stay strong in your roots, you will always remember what you are trying to do in your new life, your goals, but most importantly, you will always have a place to go back to, where everyone and everything is familiar.

As I write this, I can look back on my first year at the University of Iowa where I made plenty of new friends and lived such a great first year in Iowa City, but the best part of this year wasn't all of the memories that I made at school. The best part of this year was being able to come back home for the summer and knowing that nothing had changed and being able to reconnect with the people who I have grown up with and picking up exactly where we left off. Change is one of the best things in life and you should enjoy every bit of it that you encounter. That being said, it is important to remember everyone and everything that made you who you are today and to never let that go.