Dear high school seniors,

So, this is it. The big one. People will tell you it isn’t that big in the grand scheme of life and relationships and the future. You may be thinking the same thing, with the Common App pulled up on your computer, your brain numb underneath the oceanic waves of ACT scores and application deadlines, and the seemingly endless stream of questions regarding your 15 year plan. Why is it that adults assume we have our lives wholly mapped out by the age of 18? This year may seem like an unnecessary pit stop on the way to the bigger, brighter, more beautiful college; it somehow feels both eternal and so, so short.

I want you to close out of Common App for just one minute, and call your best friends. Go get coffee. Go rent a terrible rom-com. Go to Target and buy too many pints of Ben & Jerry’s and sit on your couch and watch Netflix in your sweats. Don’t talk about college, or the future, or how tired you are of high school. Just sit there and enjoy each other’s company, sit there and laugh and let yourself feel how this one moment is absolutely perfect.

Because I was much like you a year ago, my mind trapped in college essays and deadlines and the terrifying unknown about where I was going to call home for four more years. I remember how it felt to just want to be done with high school so badly it ached, and how I was incapable of having a single conversation that did not revolve around college or test scores or the future. Those are things that are still emblazoned in my mind, but in the blurriest of terms, in the most peripheral of emotions. My first semester of senior year is merely a hazy recollection with the word "college" in bold.

Let me tell you what I do remember. I remember staying up until midnight on my best friend’s back porch, our legs getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and our stomachs aching from laughter. I remember driving to go cliff jumping multiple times a week, even though the hike was exhausting and the water was disgusting, because it felt good sitting under the sun as my friends catapulted themselves into the water. I remember falling asleep on my best friend’s shoulder as five, six, seven of us crowded onto couches and under blankets with Parks and Rec playing on the screen.

The future is important. The future is big and scary and, yes - unknown. But that’s alright for now. Look at your best friends, and memorize their faces and their voices and the way they laugh. Take so many pictures that everyone wants to scream at you, but will love you when they get to wallpaper their dorm rooms with all of your faces. Take a Saturday, and sit inside and cuddle on the couch with big blankets and no makeup and binge-watch your favorite show. These are the things you will remember next year, as you sit in your dorm room because you will get there. High school doesn’t, contrary to popular belief, last forever. So live in it. Love it.

It’s the big one. Make it count. Common App will still be there when you get home.