"I can't wait to be finished with high school," is exactly what I was thinking a matter of months ago. Now, barely two months after graduation, I find myself wondering why I was in such a hurry. College is fast approaching, so fast now that I cannot deny its existence any longer.

The reality hit me like a truck: my life is never going to be the way it was a year ago, the way it was six months ago, or even the way it was two weeks ago. Things have changed. People have changed. Lifelong friends are beginning their new lives separate from each other. Parents are left empty-nested as their offspring embark on adulthood. Life is undergoing monumental changes for millions of families across this country and the entirety of the world. I realized just how many seemingly insignificant things I am going to miss about life as I know it.

•I'll miss being able to blame my sister when I can't find the shoes I'm looking for because she won't be able to take stuff from my dorm like she did at home.

•I'll miss seeing my brother in the hallway at school during passing period and exchanging irritated looks as we transition between classes.

•I'll miss being woken up on the weekends to the sound of my mom cleaning the house.

•I'll miss chauffeuring my siblings from place to place even though it's a major waste of my time.

•I'll miss fighting with my siblings over the remote, over which music to play in the car, over who has to wash the dishes or take out the trash.

•I'll miss my sister asking me to French braid her hair after she's finished taking a shower.

•I'll miss the mornings I sat outside sipping coffee with my mom, even when we didn't say a word and just enjoyed the weather.

•I'll miss walking through my old high school and seeing my favorite teachers, exchanging a wave or a smile or a simple "hey" in passing. I'll even miss the teachers whose classes I didn't enjoy.

I never realized all of the small things I have taken for granted over the years. I will no longer be able to rely on my mom to make tea for me when I'm sick. I won't be able to curl up in bed and hide from the world when my worries get the best of me. No more Law and Order marathons with my mom, no more hassling my siblings to get their homework done.

Though college is bound to be the biggest adventure in my life thus far, filled with excitement and new experiences, part of my heart will always yearn for what once was. Change is never easy, and this change may surely be the hardest of all. It is true that nothing is fully appreciated until it's over, but I had not grasped the magnitude of this ending until recently.

I have been so caught up in growing up, in moving on, that I forgot to sit back for a moment to relish in everything I am so fortunate to have and everything I will be leaving. I long for a time machine that will allow me to extend the last few weeks I have at home. I know this absence will not be permanent, that I will still be able to come home on the occasional weekend and during breaks, yet the thought of leaving still lingers bitterly.