June, it's that time of the year again where elementary school kids and high schoolers alike get giddy feelings in their stomach about the rapidly approaching summer. Classes start to wind down, end of the year parties are thrown, and the sun starts to get a little bit hotter. The end of the school year is always so exciting as the anxious feelings for the next school year start accumulating before the last one is even over. For me I always felt excited for another year of superiority in the next grade I was going to be in. As if being in the next grade up would add to my level of power in society… yeah right.

As all of the local high schools in my town hold their graduation ceremonies this week it makes me remember the feelings I had just one year ago when I was all dressed up in the same cap and gown. I remember feeling more than ready to get out of high school, fed up with the drama and the routines of my everyday life there. I was bored of the scenery and tired of the same stories that passed through the halls. I felt as if graduation was the commencement ceremony into my new life, and it was, but I underestimated how “new” that life would really be. After I walked across the stage and received my diploma, which was assumed by my family and community, I felt free and on top of the world. Now, looking back on that moment and having experienced everything that I did in my first year at college, there are a few things I wish I would have known about the path I was about to begin on.

First of all, I was not on top of the world; frankly I was back at the bottom. The world I had just entered was the real world, a world with taxes and things like that. This new world after high school is harsh and calls for serious hard work. Teachers aren’t going to cut you slack anymore, or raise your grade because you begged them to. Coaches aren’t going to sympathize with your oh-my-gosh-I’m-about-to-die face, they are going to expect you to work until you physically can not anymore. Colleges are going to want to know your Social Security number, health insurance information, and familial income rates without the presence of your parents. The end of high school is like a cliff, and when you jump off of it, it’s a free fall until you can support yourself on your own. One year ago I thought I knew everything. I had taken some AP classes and felt pretty sure of myself that there could be nothing harder than AP European History. Man, was I wrong. I was a smart student, but I knew nothing. I knew nothing about the way the real world worked outside of the city I lived in. I not only learned 10 times the amount of things I learned in high school in my first year in college, but I learned 10 times more about the way this country works and the vast amounts of different people who live in it.

On the day of my high school graduation I wish I would have known that as comfortable as I felt with the people that surrounded me, they would not be my only circle of friends. I wish I would have entered college unafraid of changing my friend circle. I wish I would have known that the people sitting next to me at my high school graduation would only make up a small percentage the large amount of people I was soon to meet. I wish I knew how different my life was going to become because then I think I would have been more excited than nervous and more willing to let my past go.

But with this learned from mistake, I get to try and explain to all of the new graduates of 2016 what an amazing ride they are about to embark on. Don’t hold anything back, let the experience change you into the person you were destined to be. The person you were in high school was suitable for the stage of life you were in at the time, often constricted by the ways of your community. But now, the world has been opened up to you, do not be afraid of change, but instead be in search of it. Look to live the way you have always dreamed of living without doubts of success. High school graduation may seem like a small event in a lifetime of big events, but in reality, it’s the bridge from who you have been told to be to the opening of opportunities to become who you want to be. Congrats and good luck.