Dear graduating seniors,

With prom and prom weekend coming up, the excitement of graduation and graduation parties every weekend to look forward to in the summer, it’s expected that you would want these final few weeks to be over so you can finally get to “the good stuff." You should be excited, as you have a lot to look forward to! Everyone is sick of the same hallways, the same faces, the same teachers and the same schedule day after day, but please try not to rush this time. Try not to take these last few months for granted. These are your last few months of stress free days with your best friends that you have known since kindergarten. These are the last few months of barely any homework, days that end at three, after school sports and all of the other things that you have become so familiar and comfortable within the last 13 years of schooling.

I want you to go to every sporting event that you can get to. Go out with your friends to every house party. Thank your teachers for genuinely caring about how well you do in their class. Thank your friends for putting up with you for all these years. Hug your mom and dad a little bit tighter - because come August, all of these things will end up being a sought after memory.

That all being said, please be excited for college. Be excited to meet new people and start working towards something that matters to you. Be excited to visit your friends on the weekends. Be excited to learn more about yourself than you ever thought imaginable. Be excited to learn not only in the classroom but outside of the classroom as well. There are so many things that college has to offer, that high school doesn’t. There is something to be said about going away for college. It teaches you the value of a dollar, it teaches you independence (but never without a little bit of help from mom) and it teaches you about relationships and friendships.

Please never forget where you came from and where you want to end up. Keep in mind that there are always going to be people at home that love you and miss you. All of the emotions that you are feeling are more than normal and they’re expected. So, cherish these last few months of real childhood, but look forward to the new adventure that college will inevitably be.