First of all, congratulations on surviving and graduating high school and getting ready to embrace the next chapter of your life. The more I have been going on social media, I have seen numerous countdowns to orientations and new student days and you may be overly excited for it to all start, but with that you are forgetting what you are leaving behind. This is the last summer of your life you will spend close to home, spending every day with those whom you grew up with, in the places you grew up in.

When you go away from home everything changes. Be thankful for the home cooked meals, the extra hug your mom always gives you before you say bye. The arguments between siblings, the fighting over what television show to watch. Remember the familiar roads and stores, the places you spent growing into who you are today. You never really take time to appreciate all the little things until they are not your day-to-day life anymore and trust me, you will miss even the parts you now hate.

Everything will change even though you’ll deny it now – I know I did. You will come home on breaks and the rare weekend, but your house will never have quite the same feeling. You will go back to your high school but it will never feel the same. You will be just a visitor – and it’ll feel that way, too. Your old “fields of glory” will just be filled with memories past, fleeting images when you blink. The auditorium will only have echoes of concerts and events, the last time your name was read as a high school student. The last time you walked across the stage. Everyone’s yearbooks you wrote “Keep in touch!” inside will become part of your memories, no longer living within your present. You won’t see your best friend every day, in the hallway, or eat lunch with them. High school will become just a memory.

This isn’t written to depress you; however, I stress that those four years weren’t the "best of your life." You will go on to meet the best people you have ever known and experience things that you never thought possible. Along with finding others, you will find yourself and explore yourself. You will begin the journey into becoming the person you want to be, the person you were meant to be. You will discover what you want your future to become, you will find your place within this world. You will find independence and your passions. Let me tell you, you will have the time of your life.

To the Class of 2016, never forget about where you started, but be at peace with letting go. Appreciate this summer and make the most of it, you’ll want the memories to look back on. However, know good things are up ahead, look back but don’t go back. You’ve only just begun.