Hey friends! I wrote a few words that originated directly from my heart. Here's a little something for the seniors everywhere that will be graduating very soon:

Don't forget to hold on to the memories you made in high school.

Don't forget your first day roaming around the seemingly endless halls, cluelessly trying to navigate your way to freshman literature.

Don't forget the tacky student ID you first received that signified your status in the place you used to call "prison".

Don't forget that first day when you searched for all your middle school buddies at lunch and ended up sitting with strange, unfamiliar people whom would be the people you grew to love and laugh with.

Don't forget the time when you thought you looked too much like a potato for someone to ask you to the fall dance and you were surprised when the one you least expected to ask you, asked you.

Don't forget how relieved yet happy you felt on the last day of your first semester.

Don't forget the first time you received an academic award for all the hard work and effort you'd put into your exams and projects.

These are just a handful of the memories that come to mind when you look back at how miserably awkward you were as a freshman. It's a bittersweet feeling to sift through these somewhat old recollections of yourself and see how far you've come in the past four years.

I ask two things from you, dear senior:

1. Don't forget these memories.
2. Don't grow up so fast.

It's typical to want so badly to just get out of that 'prison' and graduate and move on with life. I know, because I was that kid a couple of years ago. I was the one who was trying to fast forward time and make life move on. Little did I know that years later, I would be remembering high school- not as a prison, but as a place where all of the best and worst memories took place. I miss it so dearly. Life after high school seems like freedom and happiness to most students. Let me debunk that myth for you- it is quite a far distance from freedom. Life after high school includes being in debt, eating ramen for dinner every night, getting a job, paying bills, buying your own groceries, wishful thinking of somehow becoming rich & famous, etc.

The point here is that you should cherish the time you have in high school. Cherish the friends you have. Cherish the times when you don't have to live paycheck to paycheck. Cherish the time you have left with your parents in your cozy home. Once you graduate, it's all a very steep uphill climb and it certainly isn't easy in any way.

The day when graduation arrives, you will get this deep, empty feeling in the pit of your stomach. You will look around at the people who have been by your side since the beginning. You will realize that some of those faces are faces you will never ever see again- including those faces that you were so used to seeing on a daily basis. All the happy and sad and crazy memories will flash before your eyes and suddenly your name will be called and your parents and crazy sibling(s) will be shouting and cheering (even though they specifically instruct the audience not to do this beforehand). It'll all happen so fast that by the time you get back to your seat you'll be confused as to how you accepted your diploma and shook everyone's hand so quick. You will greet your family and friends after the ceremony is over. And you will think to yourself, 'it's over, I'm done'.

Don't forget the AP classes that had you up all night at the beginning of your last year of high school.

Don't forget the day when you have to order your cap, gown, and tassel for graduation.

Don't forget your last homecoming football game with your best friends whom, just four years ago, you were awkwardly meeting for the first time.

Don't forget the moment you realized you had to start the stressful process of applying for financial aid.

Don't forget the day when you'd finally decided on which college you were going to attend in the fall.

Don't forget dancing the night away with your favorite people on prom night.

Lastly, keep a solid hold of that last blissful memory you have of the place whose walls have seen you at your worst and at your best moments.