Yay! You guys made it—but graduating is not an end, it's the start of a new beginning. The majority of you guys are about to enter what most people consider the best four years of your lives, COLLEGE. Congrats to those who got into their dream school, got many great scholarships, and to those who received a full ride to either their dream school or any school in general.

Many of you guys went through high school and there were many struggles, friends, grades, teachers, and after-school activities. But nothing will compare to your college experience wherever you go. There will be times that you miss high school but are glad that it is over because college is the experience that you would never give up once you have enjoyed at least a semester or two of it.

But before you can enjoy your first semester at the school you will be attending in the fall, enjoy this summer because many of you will be either working to save up that extra cash for textbooks or moving in early to do freshman orientation and start making new friends. Do not lose contact with your high school friends and make plans to do many fun things together while you can if some of you guys do not go to the same colleges/ universities or are even staying at your hometown. Meaning, keep those good, beloved friends you made in high school but most definitely make new friends once you guys are settled in your colleges/ universities.

College is what you guys make of it. No one can control how you spend the next four years and what kind of decisions are made but YOU. You have the power to either make the best and most of it and be one of the many people that say the college was the best four years of your life, or you can be one of those people that say “eh, college was good, great, nothing that much." Whether you stay in your city/hometown for school, go abroad, or go away and dorm, it is all the same.

I can say for myself that I definitely miss high school in the sense that I was more involved in school activities than I am now in college. When I say to keep your high school friends in contact, I mean that it is something that I wish I had done more of. I still keep in contact with most of my friends from high school but not as much as I would like to due to work and being that I go to school out of state. But one thing that I do enjoy about these past two years of my college career is that I found a group of phenomenal persons that I call my friends, a.k.a the “squad." These individuals have helped me all in little ways that without them I probably would not be the person that I am today. Besides the obvious differences between the whole group, our “squad” is very different compared to others. Many things have happened that could have pulled many of us away from each other and yet we all seem to come closer together.

If there is anything that I can tell you guys, Class of 2016, it's that you must make the best of any situation that comes across your path. Whether you stay in your city/hometown, go out of state, out of the country, or even defer a year, life is what you make of it in the end.