It’s the night before your last first day of high school and you can’t sleep because you’re too anxious. It’s your senior year and you’re ready to take on the year with your best friends. You have set expectations of how the last year of high school will go. You have your last first day of school outfit set out and ready to go for the morning. It all feels so surreal and you remember the first day of freshman year as if it was yesterday. Where did time the go? I’m here to tell you that your senior year will not go as expected and you won’t leave high school with the same best friends that you entered high school with and this is all okay.

You wake up to your alarm at 5:45 A.M. to shower and get ready for your first last day of high school. You blast music while you dance in the shower, because you’re overjoyed at the idea of being a senior. The waiting is now over and you get to run the halls now. Your phone is blowing up with the “my girls” group chat telling each other to head on over to your friend’s house to take pictures before school. After pictures you carpool to school and enter the building side by side.

Preseason kicked your butt, but you’re ready to take on the year with your favorite group of girls playing your favorite sport. Team bonding is crucial, but don’t get too close, because that’s when things can get out of hand. If things get out of hand you should confront the situation, or don’t…either one will work. It’s game day and you’re in the locker room blasting music and warming up. You’re excited, nervous, and thinking about which friends will come and support you at your first home game in the bleachers cheering your name as you play your heart out.

It’s now Friday night and you know what that means…football games! Never ever miss a Friday night football game at your home field, because nothing is better than being with your friends cheering on your favorite team. You’ll probably lose your voice from yelling too much, but that’s okay. Whatever you do, do not go home after the game, go out with your friends no matter what the plans are. Don’t be lame, nobody likes that. If there’s a big school event you better go to it, because you only get to experience senior year once, so do it right (even if it requires you to break your curfew a couple of times).

There will come some days and nights where you actually cry over homework, essays, summative reports, SATs, and AP exams, and I’m telling you that it’s okay to cry every now and then. Senior year comes with stress, tears, drama and a lot more drama. It’s not in the handbook that you get when you enter the doors on the first day of school, but it’s something everyone experiences.

It’s now time for you to apply to college (this will be fun). Common app will become your best and worst friend. Obviously you’ve thought about applying to colleges, but now that the time has come it’s kind of overwhelming to be completely honest. Apply to as many as you want, because you want some options, but don’t apply to too many. If you’re a homebody, then apply to schools in your area. There is nothing wrong with wanting to stay in the state in which you grew up in. If you are one who wants to get out of the state in which you’ve been living for 18 years, then apply to out of state schools. Your mind will change about seven times, but that is 100% okay.

Now the waiting process begins. Your first acceptance letter is the best feeling in the world, let me tell you. During this process you’re going to talk about college life with your friends nonstop, trust me. Once you decide which college you want to go to you’ll feel so relieved. Don’t base your decision off of anything, except what YOU want. Whatever you do, don’t wish your time away just to get to college quicker, because the time actually flies by.

You’re now putting on your cap and gown wondering where time has gone (I told you time flies). As you enter the arena you search for your parents so you can wave and have them take pictures of you walking in. You and your friends are all smiles and full of excitement, because you’ve been waiting for this day for so long. As you wait for your name to be called so you can walk across the stage and receive your diploma, that’s when the thoughts go running through your head. You replay senior year and think ‘wait I’m actually about to do this, I graduated, I’m a senior’. The cheering from your family makes you snap out of your memory lane daydream and you realize your name has finally been called. Take pictures with everybody that you can, because these are the moments you’ll remember the most and wish you could go back to.

Now you’re dorm shopping with your parents and wondering where summer went. Maybe you slept your way through summer, or maybe you worked your way through summer. Whatever you did over the summer, you definitely made some memories and that’s all that matters. Getting all your dorm stuff together is so exciting – yet very expensive. So thank your parents for spending even more money on you for college expenses. Move in day is just around the corner and you’ll be feeling a lot of different emotions all at once and that is totally okay.

You’ll say goodbye to all your friends and family as they send you off to your new home for the next four years. You’ll be with the best people of your life and those people will be your true friends. High school is where you make mistakes, learn new things, accept things for the way they are, and you lose people who you thought were good for you. You’ll eventually learn that everything happens for a reason and there are always bigger and better things out there for you.

Now you’re reading this and thinking, ‘I have so much time, senior year just started’. You’ll blink and you’ll be packing your stuff to move into your college dorm, trust me.

I can’t emphasize it enough. Learn to let things and people go, because there’s nothing wrong with letting people go. If people are meant to stay in your life, they will make that effort. Do not waste your time on anyone who makes you feel less of yourself. Have fun and make mistakes, those mistakes only turn into lessons and that’s part of being a teenager. I wish you and your senior year the best of luck. Only you know what you want and how to succeed.

Thank you for taking the time to read from someone's point of view who has been through it already.