Dear high school senior,

As your final months in high school are spent filling out college applications and praying for the best, in less than a year you will be living a completely different life. As the school year seems to drag on, some of you will wish for the days to pass as minutes, please don’t wish it away. Yes, a fresh start is a desperate need after 18 years, but by Spring you'll be wishing it could never end.

Enjoy this time. Applying and hearing back from colleges can be exciting. Touring different campuses is an adventure. You’ll miss this time a year from now when you become the college student that the high school seniors see on their tours. It’s crazy how quickly the time will go by. The feeling of getting accepted into schools is one of the best; Nothing’s better than opening that acceptance letter from your dream school.

Don’t pick a school based on friends, boyfriends, or girlfriends. Don't pick a school just for the social life or even just the academics. Yeah, these factors are important, but the most important piece is which one feels like home to you. Where could you see yourself spending the next 4 plus years of your life? What college will give you the best opportunity to grow as an individual? The friends, the social life and the academics will all fall into place wherever you end up.

Enjoy all the lasts of your senior year, like the football games, hockey games, pep rallies, all of it. Take each and every last moments in. This may be the last time you will fully live at home with your parents, the last time you will have a room to yourself, or the last time you will have home cooked meals every day. Appreciate the lasts as you prepare for your college firsts.

In one short year, you’ll find yourself sitting on your lofted twin sized bed with the rest of your life stuffed underneath it. You will be surrounded by some of the best friends you’ve ever had and you will make so many new memories. You'll learn to balance school, health, and a social life. You may get homesick, but I promise that it will be the best time of your life.

Sincerely,

A College Freshman