All throughout middle and high school I watched class after class graduate and go off to college while the rest of us were stuck, left behind in our little hometown. Every year I’d wait to see what school my older friends decided to go to and which sororities they’d pledge. I’d go visit them and meet their friends and it always seemed like college was a lifetime away for me.

When I started to see senior pictures and first day of school posts pop up on Facebook and Instagram, I was honestly shocked. I really can't tell you why but I was actually in awe that my high school was still functioning without me, my friends, and the rest of my graduating class there to hold it together.

While I've been reminiscing on all of our memories that the Class of 2017 is experiencing right now, not once have I wanted to go back and relive my senior year. As much as I miss my friends and as much as I loved the last year we all spent together, I've come to realize that it's someone else's turn now. It's their turn to post endless amounts of senior pictures on Instagram and take daily Snapchats of their senior-privileged off-campus lunches. As a college student you realize how trivial all of those things were and I'm sure that when I'm graduated from college, I'll say the same thing of all my friends still in undergrad.

Taking that jump from high school to college is definitely the first major turning point in a young adult's life and it's so funny to me that it took a few pictures and Facebook posts for me to realize that. While I'd known that is be on my own for the first time and having to manage school, time, money, and much more by myself, I never considered how I'd feel toward the people whose place I was in only a short twelve months ago. Here's to you, Class of 2017. Live it up while you can.