My friends and I have this ongoing joke that whoever uses the word "graduation" has to put a dollar in the money jar, so we call it the "g-word" instead. I guess we think that as long as we don't talk about it, it's not going to happen. But why is it so scary?

Graduation means the end of life as we know it. Maybe that's a little dramatic, but that's what it feels like sometimes. It's the end of lazy summers, three week long Christmas breaks and classes being cancelled for the day because there's a big football game on a weeknight. It's the end of all of our friends being within walking distance of one another and the ability to call one of them at 11 o'clock at night to go with you to get fast food. It's the end of sorority and fraternity formals, mixers and house parties. It's the last time you'll see those acquaintances who you're not really sure how you met in the first place, but who never fail to say "hi" to you when they see you.

However, graduation isn't all about endings. It's also about beginnings. It's the beginning of new jobs and careers. For some of us, it's the beginning of a life in a new place. It's the opportunity to make new friends, acquire new hobbies and gain new skills. It's the beginning of the rest of our lives.

What makes graduation so scary is while it comes with a diploma, it also comes with a lot of unknowns. Will I like my job? What will all of my friends do and where will they go? Who will I stay in touch with? What am I going to do without my daily 2 p.m. nap? There are so many unanswered questions when we think about graduation. However, we had similar questions when graduating high school, and look at us now.

The most we can do is take it a day at a time, spend as much time with our friends as possible and take advantage of every opportunity that college presents us with in the little bit of time we have left here. People say that college is the "best four years of your life," but that doesn't mean that the next 70 can't be just as great. As for my friends and me, we'll continue our ban of the "g-word" while we soak up every last minute of our college lives together.