Gowns in every color of the rainbow, Instagram feeds filled with sentimental pictures and posts announcing college commitments have been the order of the day lately. Graduation season is in full swing with the class of 2015 celebrating the end of their primary education and preparing to embark on whatever journeys life has in store for them after the diploma. May and June are certainly months of excitement for new graduates, as well as moments of nostalgia for those of us who have already gone through this rite of passage. Friday marked exactly one year since I graduated high school, and with one year of college under my belt, I can say with confidence that I’ve learned quite a bit. No matter what your high school experience was like, we all learned something about life from it—even if we got little to nothing from the textbooks.

Here is some advice for all the recent high school grads out there:

1. The end of one experience is always the beginning of another.
Some people are incredibly sad to see high school end. Others can’t wait to get out. No matter where you fall on the spectrum of readiness to leave high school, high school’s going to end. Like most experiences in life, high school has to end and make way for a new, different experience. That new experience could be college, a career, traveling or doing something completely different, but whatever it is, it will present you with its own joys and challenges. Regardless of how you felt about high school, graduation really is the beginning of the rest of your life, and it is to be celebrated.

2. Approach everything with an open heart and an open mind.
The completion of high school symbolizes many new freedoms and a wide open world. It is full of so many different opportunities, thoughts and ideas and processing it all can be a little overwhelming. These new opportunities often require us to step outside of our comfort zones in some way, be it very big (moving 2,000 miles away from your family) or not so big (dying your hair a new color). The best way to handle this new freedom to choose is to approach everything with openness and curiosity and to remember that the world does not simply exist inside your little sphere. Everyone experiences the world differently, and the reason we have so many different kinds of people and experiences in the world is so that we may learn and shape our outlook. If you approach the world with openness of spirit, you will learn so much more and see so much more and become so much more than you ever would have by remaining closed.

3. You may not have found yourself in high school, and that’s okay.
One of the major projects of living is becoming more and more yourself every day. Some people find themselves in high school, and this phenomenon is depicted frequently in movies, books and television. If you’re one of those rare people who has it all figured out by the time you graduate high school, that’s awesome—you’ll definitely benefit from that level of self-awareness. If you’re not one of those people, that’s okay too. You’ll continue to learn more about yourself and who you are as you grow, and you’ll eventually get to a place where you are 100 percent you. Don’t feel discouraged if your life is a mess when you graduate high school. There is a time for everything, including finding yourself. Your time will come eventually.

4. If something or someone in your life is bad for you, drop it.
After high school, you’ll let go of a lot of friends. Period. It happens to everyone. Often, our high school circles narrow down to a select group of truly good friends with the other people dropping out of our lives. We also tend to cut off toxic relationships and get rid of the people who add no value to our lives. The same goes for hobbies. Many of us engaged in extracurriculars we weren’t big fans of in order to put them on a resume or write about them in a scholarship essay. After high school, we tend to drop these hobbies in favor of more sleep, less stress and overall better well-being. All of this is natural. The lesson to be learned here is that graduating high school is a perfect season of life to let go of the people and things that aren’t good for you and to hold on tight to those that are. In conjunction with this, starting your post-high school life is the perfect opportunity to commit to only allowing the best things into your life and committing to having only the best of friends, the best of significant others and doing whatever it is you love.

5. Find your passion, and do your best to cultivate it.
In high school, many people are lost in an ocean of school subjects, after-school activities and hobbies. We must take a foreign language, fine art, math, science, English and history (or a similar schedule) for four years to meet graduation requirements. This tends to leave the average student lost and not knowing what it is they’re passionate about. Don’t get me wrong, colleges everywhere have graduation requirements specific to departments and majors, but by being able to choose what you will major in, you get to find whatever it is you are passionate about. The second part of this piece of advice is to not care what other people have to say about it. My two passions are anthropology and psychology. I’ve run into exactly two people who know what anthropology is in the time since I’ve declared my majors, a lot of people think I won't be able to find a job after college, and I'm not even really sure I will, but does that matter? Nope. I’m studying what I’m passionate about after four years of apathetically being forced to study subjects I couldn’t care less about. And I know I'll end up okay, with a career that I enjoy doing. Your life after high school will give you so many ways to discover what you love be it taking a diverse schedule of classes in college, finding a job or just taking a break and thinking it over. Whatever path you choose, just commit to finding your passion and settling for nothing less.

6. Make time for making memories.
Having fun often got lost in the mix of things we had to do in high school. While post-high school life is no less challenging than high school (and usually more challenging), we all need to make time for making memories. Don't let classes or work or other adult obligations suck the fun out of life. Go on that weekend vacation with your friends. Take time off to relax and just be lazy. Do that crazy thing your friend suggested. Screw up a little. Take a lot of pictures and make sure you make the most out of what life’s given you after graduation. You'll be making memories you’ll cherish forever and the stories you’ll tell your kids. They will last even after memories of high school have long faded away and names and faces become distant blurs. Capture every moment you can and make it a wild ride.