Dear You,

I came across a status update on Facebook a few days ago that read, "Congratulations to all of you high schoolers, you've completed the easiest part of life!" I've seen phrases like that before, but I guess now that someone close to me is actually one of those graduates, my big sister defense mode starts to kick in. I'm here to tell you right now that high school is not the easiest part of life and to graduate is no small feat. If you think back to the last four years of your life, what were they filled with? For me, pressures of underage drinking, smoking, experimenting with drugs, and sex all come to mind. Not only those, but having the perfect body, playing a sport, having a big group of friends, and always having a boyfriend are there too. High school is a time of transition from adolescence to adulthood, and if that is the "easiest" time in life, I'm adulting all wrong.

Since I'm the older sibling and it's my job to be the role model, I thought I'd help you out when it comes to what to expect. I'm not an expert at handling all of it, because I'm still experiencing it myself, but I have a pretty good idea of what transitioning to this crazy world of college is like. In college, there is no more walking in line to the cafeteria and rushing to find your friends. There is no more comparing schedules or fighting to be best dressed. Now, most days you won't even eat lunch, let alone spend it with your friends. Your high school friends will most likely slowly fade out of your life, and while you may talk to them at times, it won't be as often as you promised at graduation. You'll walk into a lecture hall with over one hundred people in it and be forced to take notes from a teacher that doesn't believe in PowerPoint, then you'll get your workout walking across campus to your next class in a million layers because you never know what the weather is going to do. Now, it's time to be prepared and take control.

This isn't said to make college seem scary. While the transition is tough, think back to high school. When you were 13 and entering high school, you felt so old. In reality, you were so young, but you still did it. College is the same way -- you just don't always have teachers helping you adjust along the way like you did in high school. But for every difficult adjustment that college brings, there are the things that make it worth it. The football games, where having school spirit isn't embarrassing, the nights of partying and the nights spent in the library, finding a group of friends to complain with, and the overall atmosphere of college makes the experience the actual best four years of your life. No more asking to go to the bathroom, no more perfect attendance, no more specific rubrics or study guides. You're free, and what you do is finally your choice.

I'm a little bit of a book nerd, so life is like a book for me. Our story begins the day we are born. There are so many plot twists, you could be engaged for years. Chapters are fairly long and crazy while you're reading them, but when you look back, they weren't all that bad. You just finished writing yet another chapter -- a huge one! Congratulations. As you begin to write the next chapter of your book, here are some things I wish I knew when I was writing mine:

Don't take 8 a.m. classes just to get them over with, unless you enjoy getting four hours of sleep, walking to class in your pajamas, and performing well. Don't feel like you owe anything to your high school friends. You will make new friends and you should not feel guilty about that. Join every single club you think you could be interested in, and if it sucks, quit. And finally, don't wish your life away to be older. Enjoy these next four, five, six, however many years of college because -- take it from someone who is six months away from finishing that chapter—it flies by. You made it through the hardest part of your life. Now it's time to grow from it.

Love,
Your Older Sibling