To my best friend who's graduating early,

Congrats! You’ve made it out. You took everything these past 3.5 (or 4.5) years gave you and are about to take your first steps into the big scary world of adulthood. Whether that means an internship, moving home, or getting a job, you're leaving the collegiate world behind for bigger and (hopefully) better things.

In one way, I’m jealous of you. You don’t have to sit in class for another three months, or eat shitty campus food. You get to say goodbye to finals and midterms, and never worry about grades again. While we're all drinking at the dingy campus bar, you'll be out finding fancy new places to wine and dine. Forget about trudging across campus in the freezing cold because you can’t afford any more absences and forget about waiting for the shuttles that never come. You’re free! While you start your life, we’re all stuck suffering from one more semester of senioritis.

More than being jealous, I’m upset. Upset that I can’t call you to run to Panera Bread for a study date and upset that I’m losing the person I know will drink wine with me at any hour of the day. I’m sad that it’ll be so much harder to keep you up to date on every asshole who texts me stupid things, and sad that you won't be here to scope them out with me. I’m going to miss people watching around campus and pointing out the ones we mutually hate. And, more than anything, I’m going to miss having my best friend around all the time.

I hope you take every experience you get next semester and run with it. I hope you love every second of every day and that you make incredible memories (which you’ll obviously text me about right away). I hope you meet awesome people (especially cute guys) and do awesome things and eat awesome food and drink awesome drinks. I hope you find people who will relentlessly quote movies and stupid YouTube videos with you and drag you out at midnight to buy Ben & Jerry's. But most importantly, I hope our friendship stays important to you and that we never drift apart.

You see, you leaving is really the beginning of the end for all of us here. It’s a swift kick in the face to remind us that graduation is right around the corner. And that’s terrifying. It reminds me to never take any second here for granted because it's going to be over before we know it.

So, have a blast out there, and let me know how it is. Don't forget about all of us back here at school, and don't you dare stop texting the group chat. We'll all miss you more than you know.