Hey!

So if you’re reading this, you’re probably a senior in high school, ready to take on the last three months of school. It’s March, you’re already ready for spring break, and you’re sure are starting to feel senioritis kick in as you try to sit down to write yet another essay for that English class you dread.

I know you’ve probably read hundreds of articles saying that this year will go by faster than you could imagine, soak up every memory, etc., etc.

And I agree. Those are all extremely true things.

But I also realize that sometimes people need more. Sometimes just knowing that high school is ending is just another reminder that you don’t need to work that hard and that you should spend more time with friends than studying.

However, as a college freshman who is in the middle of the second semester, I can tell you this: you will never have the same feeling as you do right now. Pretty soon, those halls you religiously walk down, with the clocks you know the placement of to the exact angle, will be gone.

After these three months, you will never walk down those halls as a student of your school. And worst of all, those friends you saw in the hallway every day at the exact same time are soon going to be a distant memory.

Pretty soon, everything will become completely unfamiliar.

No longer will you find your lunch group and sit with them every day for a year. No longer will your days be so specifically scheduled that you never have to wonder what you’ll be doing next.

When I graduated, I realized these things, but not to the degree I should have. Because what inevitably becomes reality is the fact that this is truly the end. College breaks don’t just make everything go back to normal. Your summers will be filled with making money to continue funding your college life.

And after college? Real life starts. This is an end of being handed things. And I didn’t realize how much change that would bring in college. That’s not to say college hasn’t been an amazing time.

College is awesome, and I’m sure you’ll love every part of it. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t miss what life in high school was like. And it doesn’t have to be every day or even every week.

But some days, those memories come bouldering down as fast as they can, and some days, you might find yourself wishing you had spent just one more minute in that old high school building.

So yes, be eager. Be so excited to get to college and start dorm room shopping, finding your roommate, and saying your goodbyes. But don’t try to throw away these last four years.

They’re pretty important, and even if you don’t think you will, I can assure you that you’ll think about them throughout college.