To the high school senior,

Wow, Homecoming is over already, how crazy right?! I’m sure you’re thinking this is just the beginning, yet before you know it, it will be the end. They say time flies when you’re having fun, and you never know how great things are until they’re over. It is all true. Your senior year seems like it has just begun but it is already almost October! Now I have you thinking about time. There’s only so much time before you are dressing up on Halloween, then it is Christmas break shortly after and your year is half over. Once you hit that halfway point, that’s when everything starts seeming unreal, you start the countdowns and sometimes you wish the days away and sometimes you are wishing you could just pause time and never leave. Then it is decision time, where will you be going to college, everyone wants to know. Then its spring break, how surreal, your last high school spring break ever. Before you know it its prom and then you are walking across the stage to receive your diploma.

Here I am reminiscing about “the good ol days” as they say. Now, a college senior looking back on all of the hard work and accomplishments, along with all of the let downs and disappointments. There is one thing I have for all of you high school seniors; from senior to senior, don’t count the days, hours, minutes, and seconds, make the time count. Before you know it you will be in my shoes, you’ll be on your second round of being a senior in the blink of an eye.

I always told myself, “senior year of college is so far away.” Now here I am. It is almost time to meet the real world head on. It is almost time for me to walk across the stage again to receive another diploma. I need to take my own advice just as much as you do.

No matter what, don’t allow yourself to wish the days away, they go by fast enough without you wishing for them to pass. Enjoy everything, the big things, the little things, and everything in between. Listen to your parents, hate to say it but they do know best. Enjoy the time with your siblings, soon you won’t be living under the same roof. Enjoy your friends, soon you will be going separate ways and won’t be spending every day together.

Then when you get to college, don’t wish for the week to be over. Don’t wish for your next break. Don’t wish the semesters away. Don’t wish for summer vacation. Enjoy each and everything. Enjoy your time here; there is nowhere else where you get live-in friends - and hundreds of them. But before you get to college, embrace every second of high school. Enjoy just being a kid, don’t wish to grow up.

I wish you all the best of luck and I hope that you do truly take everything in and don’t wish it away. From senior to senior, don’t count the days, hours, minutes, and seconds, make the time count.

Sincerely,

The senior going through round two