"I was told in high school that the last game during your senior year stays with you forever, which is true." - Jim Otto

I was in high school not very long ago. Four months ago to be exact. It's been four months since I graduated high school. At that moment I was so excited. Like, you have no idea how excited I actually was to get out of high school and finally start my life and be able to make my own decisions. Now here I am ending my first full week of college classes, and all I can think about is how much I wish I was still in high school.

So I'm telling you now before I really get into this article, DO NOT wish away senior year because I promise you, you are going to want it back. I traveled home last weekend for a football game (I definitely could NOT miss the first football game). I was so excited to watch the team play and even more excited when they walked home with a win. But realizing that I couldn't sit in the student section and cheer the football team on, well that hurt. I had to sit with the adults: the people that don't get to sit in the student section and throw confetti canons for every touchdown; the people that don't get to scream and yell with their fellow classmates. It was my first high school game as a has-been, and it hurt. All of you high school seniors are probably sitting in school every day barely into senior year, waiting for graduation to come. I was that way too. I was ready to get senior year over and done with. Then football season started, and suddenly I never wanted high school to end.

High school can be described as some of the best and worst times of your life. You can have so much fun, and you can hate it all in the same four years. I personally loved and hated high school. I never actually realized how much I would miss high school until I graduated and started doing things for myself. Everyone that goes into their senior year of high school gets so excited because they know next they will be college freshmen, and who wouldn't be excited for that? I know I was so, so, so excited about it.

But now, here I am in college. College is a completely different ballgame compared to high school. It's so refreshing to know you get to basically start over, especially if you go to college away from home. If you go to college away from home, no one knows you, and you don't know them, which means you can completely reinvent yourself without feeling like you are going to be judged for past mistakes. You get to make new friends and create a new story. That was the most exciting part for me: knowing I could be whoever I wanted to be starting college because I had the ability to do that.

When you sit in a classroom, please don't start wishing away senior year because I promise you once football season hits, and then prom and then graduation, you will realize just how real all this is and you will have to grow up even if you don't want to. Most people probably won't agree with me when I say this, but I wish I could relive my senior year over and over again forever because the first three years of high school may have not been the best, but senior year was. So don't waste your senior year. Have fun, try something new, be more open and PLEASE SIT IN THE STUDENT SECTION! If you don't, you will definitely regret it.

Class of 2017, this is your year! Make it count.