I remember the first day of high school senior year like it was yesterday. We painted our cars, "reserved" our parking spots with chalk, came up with lame nicknames for our senior shirts, and then flooded the nearest Chick-fil-A to grab breakfast on the first day of school. It was a great feeling knowing that we were the oldest and everyone looked up to us. It was weird seeing baby freshmen and asking each other if we were that small three years ago. It was also an awesome feeling knowing that in a year I would be moving to the greatest city on Earth: Athens, Ga.
Four years from that first day have passed, and now it's my last year in college. I have no idea where the time went. I remember moving into my dorm and running to get ice cream at Bolton with people I had never met before. Now, I am old and fall asleep at 10 p.m. on Fridays.
You know when you are reading a really good book and you know something epic is about to happen at the end of the chapter so you might skip a paragraph or page just to get to that part? I cannot do that with senior year. I don't want to skip a page, or even a paragraph, because when May rolls around this part of my life closes forever. This chapter has to last as long as possible (and it's not all because I'm dreading the 9 to 5 work grind).
At the start of freshman year people tell you that this will be the greatest four years of your life and that it's going to fly by, but they never tell you that it os not always going to be easy. It is not always going to be filled with date nights and football games, but it is going to be filled with numerous opportunities where you grow as a person (whether you want to or not).
You meet incredible people, you find 'the one' and then experience heartbreak, you pay too much for books, you live for Saturdays between the hedges, you spend too much money on coffee and you make the greatest memories that will last a lifetime. College is the greatest four years of your life, because you come in as one person and leave as a completely new person.
Over this past week, I have thought about how different I was as a freshman and the decisions that have brought me to where I am today, and I have begun to realize that despite the past three years zooming past and the last one looming over me, these really will be the greatest four years of your life. Not just because of all the great memories and friends you make, but because of the person you become in these few years. You grow more in these four years than you probably will in your life, and that is what makes this experience so beautiful.
Maybe I will start making better decisions -- like going to bed before midnight, reading the assigned readings before class, not waiting until the night before to start a paper or stop spending so much money on wine --ha, who am I kidding!? I don't want to miss anything that these decisions could get in the way of.
Enjoy it, because the next chapter is only a few pages away.
