As the first semester of my college experience comes to a close, I've caught myself drifting into the wonderland of memories and the past.
To think I was still attending high school a mere seven months ago, gives me the strangest sensation of growing up. I've been finding myself back home on the weekends, almost trying to remember what it was like in high school. To remember it. But there's no such thing as repeating the past.
Don't get me wrong, I love college. It's exciting. New. Stressful, but something you can't explain. Yet late at night I sometimes wonder where it's all gone.
When they say, "it all goes by as fast as a blink of an eye," they're not lying.
Even as high school seniors we all remember thinking about how exciting the year will be; how it'll feel like forever until we walk across that stage, how you finally feel on top of the world even if the college application process is trying to bring you down.
So if you're reading this in high school, I want you to do a few things for me.
Stop wishing for college. Sure, waking up at 6 a.m. is a challenge and college promises later mornings, but it also promises later nights due to homework and projects that determine your grade.
Stop wishing your life away. There's nothing special about being any older. There isn't any glamor
in adulthood. There isn't anything special about having to fully be on your own. Why wish it all away when these are exciting times for us? Live in the moment. This is our time to be young, foolish, fun. So ask the boy out you've always liked, or commit to the dream you've always put on the back burner because there isn't any better time than now, and I cannot stress that enough at this point.
Stop wishing to "finally" be 18. Eighteen brings responsibilities that don't determine anything except stress levels. (Unless you're waiting until your 18th for a tattoo, then that's exciting.)
Stop wishing for it all because when it comes and you gain all of the new experiences, you lose things on the way too. The eager spark in your bright eyes will fade or your exciting spirit will grow a little more dull because you're no longer young.
And you'll understand that when you're a college kid trying to hang out with high schoolers, something just feels different.
So don't wish it all away, because when you do, you're also wishing away those friendships you've had and grown with. Because no matter what promises you make to each other for how often you'll visit, people drift. People change. And soon the memories will become more important than their names.
Childhood as a whole is gone before you know it. Without even fully comprehending it, you'll find yourself moving into a dorm that smells stale and saying goodbye to your parents at the door.
Just do yourselves a favor and cherish your childhoods because some of us in college wish we had done so a little bit more when we had the chance.
