Dear you,

Welcome to the "adult world", where money matters and stress levels are higher than a stoner in Colorado. Sounds fun, right? At this time in your life you're expected to make all sorts of decisions for yourself. You're supposed to know who you are, what you're interested in, and what you want to do with the rest of your life. Y

ou're suddenly expected to take the initiative to seek our your future. You're expected to fill out college applications, job applications, scholarship applications, and other forms on your own after years of being handed any kind of forms already filled out by "real adults". You're expected to know how to function as a complete individual with skills in cooking, laundry, and other various survival skills. After years of having these things done for you, how are you supposed to succeed? Are we simply setting ourselves up for failure? Not quite- you see, this is all a learning experience. This is the time in your life where you're aloud to make mistakes. Actually, mistakes are encouraged. You see, you may not ace your first college course. You may be hit by such culture shock your first semester that you absolutely fail and completely without grace.

Dear high school senior, I want you to know that this is all okay. Because to be honest, none of us really know what we're doing. We do our best to read articles and how-to books, and we try hard to keep our grades and lives on point. Our school counselors and teachers will do their best to prepare us for the real world, but in the end, it all comes with experience. One year ago I was in your shoes; applying to twelve out of state schools, to ultimately make the "adult" decision of cheaper in-state tuition.

So explore, and have some fun with it. You'll never know until you try. Take a class in something you've never done before. Apply for that dream school, but don't be too upset if it doesn't work out. Life has a funny way of working itself out for the best. Don't stress too much over having a "great senior year". By this time next year, you won't even remember who was on homecoming court or how many hours you studied for that math test. What's most important is that you do what's best for you, and take the punches as they come. You have a short time left in high school, and then you're off to bigger and better things. So sit back and enjoy the ride, and take each experience to heart as a lesson worth learning.