All you see on social media anymore are high school students dreaming of a college lifestyle or being 18 and getting to do whatever they want. Thirteen year old girls are doing their makeup better than I could ever dream of (why are they allowed to skip the blue eyeshadow stage? I'd love to know) and kids are dating (and everything that comes with it) younger and younger. And for what? To look older, cooler, whatever you want to call it.

Newsflash: being an adult college student isn't that great.

Now, don't get me wrong, having some freedom is pretty great. College is pretty great. What isn't great? Taxes. Loan payments. Spending $350 on a textbook you'll use once.

College also isn't 11 am classes everyday and partying every night. Sure you can try, however I wouldn't recommend it. It's taking 18 credits and realizing you might graduate late, or worse, early. It's accidentally oversleeping and missing an exam worth 20% of your grade (disclaimer: this never happened to me but I know people who it did and it was not pretty). It's losing longtime friends you never thought you'd lose.

Sometimes when I'm working on my 7 page paper with another 5-6 page paper on the backburner, along with 3 projects and readings haunting my mind, I wish I was sitting in a desk at my old high school talking to my friend. When I'm walking around campus, 4 cups of coffee deep, ready to fail whatever exam I've studied for the last 3 days, I wish I was playing kickball or dreading about running a mile in junior high.

I can't say that I wasn't a high school student dreaming of bigger and better things once I turned 18, and to be honest, things don't really change. Life goes on faster than you had anticipated; one day you're a high school sophomore and you blink and you realize you're 3 semesters away from graduating college and starting your "big kid" life. Your facebook friends are engaged, married, and parents and you're remembering the day that boy picked his nose in public in 3rd grade. Where did the time go?

Stop wishing you could be older. Be young, and make mistakes. Learn from them and try again. Go to school and have a good time seeing your friends because chances are in 10 years you won't even remember half of them.

I know most of you who read this will think it's super dumb, and that's fine. But once you graduate high school and start your life away from home, you'll get it. So be young and have fun. Don't let anyone stop you from embracing your youth, because it definitely doesn't last as long as you want it to.