Every high schooler spends all four years looking forward to the day they get the chance to walk across the stage and collect the diploma that they've been working toward since elementary school. Some of their teachers will make it seem like after they get that diploma, everything is fine and dandy. Others will be honest with them and they may not tell them exactly what to expect, but they do give some pretty good advice -- like one of my teachers telling me to "make good choices."

It may seem rather trivial to have little pieces of advice that stick with you, but they do help you when you're faced with the unexpected, and there will come a time when you need it. High school doesn't really prepare you for college the way some people will say it does. In fact, making the transition from high school to college is kind of like jumping headfirst into a pool when you didn't check to see how deep it was.

You will miss your family -- just accept it.

When I left for college I was so excited to be on my own and not have my parents watching over everything I did, but after a few months I suddenly realized that I needed them. Sometimes, you do need your parents for advice or maybe even just some encouragement when you're feeling down. Sometimes you just need to get out of your dorm and go see your family. They mean more than you thought they did in high school, and getting to see them and sleep in your own bed for a weekend can be extremely beneficial for your mental health.

You won't make friends in five seconds.

Pretty much every friendship I had in high school was one that was formed in all of a minute. We had all been in school together forever, so making friends wasn't really an issue -- we all knew where we belonged. In college, things are a bit different. You have to reach out to people, sometimes -- they won't always come to you.

Your friends from high school will probably stop talking to you, but it's OK.

Your friends from high school will probably go to all different schools across the state and even the country. With time and distance, you'll probably lose touch. You may still keep sporadic contact with a few people from your graduating class, but overall you are probably too busy having fun with your college friends to worry about your high school friends and they're doing the same thing. That's okay. People grow apart all the time; it doesn't make your time with them any less important.

Weekends aren't going to be all parties and fun.

College can heap on quite the workload. Yeah, you may finish some of your assignments during the week, but it is so much worse to fall behind in a class than it would be to just stay in a few weekends to get ahead in your studies. You're at school for an education, not to party.

Going to class isn't really an option like they told you it would be.

Yeah, you can miss a few classes, but mostly you'll want to be there because if not you could miss out on some pretty big information. Going to your classes is much more important than it may seem. You may think you can teach yourself, but trust me, you can't.