The year of change, decisions, growth and goodbyes. When you're about to graduate high school, you prepare yourself for college, when you're about to graduate college, you prepare yourself for the rest of your life. Here's what changes when you officially become a senior in college...

1. Crying

As you realize your four years of endless partying is coming to a halt, you can't seem to control your emotions and the tears coming pouring out. Some are from anxiety, some are from stress, some are from sadness because you soon have to leave your best friends and the rest are simply from disbelief that you will now be expected to function as a working adult.

"How did this happen?" You ask yourself. Us legal 21-year-olds who can now order a beer with dinner remember being 17 and gagging from shots of Burnett's in our dorm rooms. What happened to being fresh out of high school taking general education courses and getting lost on campus? Who fast forwarded time and who in the heck helped us pass all the classes we've taken these past three years!? Although we enjoyed our time here, probably a little too much, college has somehow slipped away from us and we didn't even realize it, nothing is sadder than that.

2. Reminiscing

You're no longer embarrassed about the humiliating things that took place freshman year, like falling down the stairs at that party or dropping all your books in the middle of the quad, or even the time your roommate threw up in the Uber.

Three years later, you're finally ready to laugh about the past instead of pushing it to the back of your memory. Every freshman, even sophomore, in college is allowed to make a few shameful mistakes that they'll talk/cry/laugh about over wine with their best friends when they're seniors.

3. Studying

You find yourself spending more Friday nights at home in sweatpants with your roommates studying and updating your resume rather than spending it at the bar pounding tequila shots. You begin to realize its time to get your sh*t together and stop blowing all your money on Kamikazes.

Besides, after four years of drinking, your body just can't recover the next day like it used to. Unlike the perky freshman who probably had their first beer this year, seniors actually HAVE to go to work on top of paying attention in class. Don't worry, staying in is cool. It means you're growing up.

4. Going Out

At the end of junior year, you begin to recognize fewer kids at parties and ask your friends "do you know who that is?" and "why does he look like he's 12?" This is because they're probably juvenile freshman who will go to any party they hear word of; they'll drink all the beer and end up puking in the sink.

You're grossed out by the messy floors, sloppy PDA on the couch and get headaches from the screaming frat bros. You now understand why you only go to bars now, overpopulated house parties are for the amateurs.

5. Hangovers

Remember freshman year when all you needed to cure your debilitating hangover was the home-fries at the dining hall, a gallon of water and three Advil? Not anymore. Now you can't get out of bed, unless it's to throw up, until 4 p.m., and even then your body and mind is struggling to function. You can't believe you used to do this three nights in a row and somehow made it out alive.

Forget rallying that night, you're ready to order a large pizza, stay in, watch a movie and hit the hay by 9:30 p.m.

6. Conversations

Instead of starting a conversation at the bar with someone like you would your freshman year with, "where are you from?" or "what's your major?", we have now advanced to "what are you doing after graduation?" and that my fellow seniors, is terrifying.

Our once youthful minds comparing how we pronounce certain words based on where we're from, are now discussing where we will be working and living after we graduate and leave this place we made home for four years. Thank God most people don't have an answer either.

7. Confidence

Yes, we are now seniors in college, aka: the top dogs on campus. We are smarter, wiser, older, more mature and get into any bar we want WITHOUT a fake ID. We know our limitations with alcohol so you (probably) won't see us puking at parties and all the bartenders/bouncers at the local bars know us by name. We don't get lost on campus, we know where all the good parking spots are, we're probably best friends with our advisors and we have four years worth of knowledge for any freshman who needs advice.

Don't be scared, we don't bite. Underneath this confident exterior, we are actually terrified of what the future holds for us after graduation.

8. Fashion

Once you've hit senior year, you realize there's no need to dress up for classes like the freshman who are trying to impress everyone that walks past them and glances their way. The only people we are trying to impress are our future employers, and they're not sitting in class with us. Therefore, sweatshirt, Uggs and a dry shampoo will do just fine.

Sure, we'll dress cute on the weekends when we go out to the bar, but don't expect us to contour our face and draw on winged eyeliner every day just for our Professor and 30 other students; note to freshies: in a 200 person lecture, no one is looking at you.

9. Relationships

Freshman year there are so many fish in the sea and all you want to do is make out with every single one of them. By senior year, you either want to settle down with someone or you're perfectly fine with the fact that you're in a relationship with food and Netflix. A hook up once in a while is fine as a senior, but what you really want at this point in your life is stability. Someone to just hold your hand while you're searching endlessly for job openings that relate to your major and remind you that everything will be fine.

Plus, you've realized by now that condoms suck and you want someone to consistently be with so you no longer have to use them, someone had to say it.

10. Worrying About Life After Graduation

"You have a whole year, stop stressing!" Easy for you to say Ms. advisor who has been guiding me through college for the past three years. Now you tell me I have to do it on my own? Excuse me while I hyperventilate.

Instead of stressing about exams, you're probably sitting there worrying if you'll have enough credits by the end of year to graduate. You're also probably thinking about how you're going to get a real career, where to apply, if your resume is good enough, if you'll be forced to move back home and when you have to start paying back your student loans.

It feels like we just started junior year, how are we supposed to start preparing to become an actual adult in today's society? Maybe if we all just start applying to jobs now, we'll have one by the time we graduate. A 20 year old with only one internship on their resume can only hope.

As we watch the incoming freshman, stress-free and full of innocence, we smile because we remember what how that was once us four years ago. Keep in mind that although you're going to miss college, there are better things ahead. Plus, now you'll never have to run into your awkward hook-ups on campus ever again!