It's the second semester of your senior year.

You have been awaiting graduation for what seems like an eternity and it's so close, yet still so far away. College acceptance letters have begun piling up and you are (hopefully) narrowing the choice down to a final few. So much is going on and so much is about to change, but don't let it distract you.

You're gonna miss this. You still have prom, senior skip day, your final game, meet, or concert, and so many other important days and events that are just for you. Make the last few months as the class of 2017 count.

Don't get me wrong, college is great. Maybe I'm just feeling a bit nostalgic but senior year was one of the greatest of my life. Cherish the late night drives with your best friend. Cherish standing in a packed gym to cheer on the basketball team. Cherish walking down the halls, and even writing your research paper for Senior Comp. Because soon enough, it will all come to an end and you will become an alumni of the school that is all too familiar.

You may think graduation day is going to be the light at the end of the tunnel, and for some people, it may be. College is great, too, but so different. You receive an entirely new type of freedom that you sometimes don't even know what to do with. You are forced to make decisions that you may not be prepared to make and sometimes it gets hard. Really hard. High school and all of its memories don't just wash away the second you leave your high school graduation. Photos of all of those memories will cover your dorm walls and you will talk of them like they were the greatest days of your life.

Because they were.

So, Class of 2017, don't do what I did. Don't wish away this last semester. Don't skip the regional championship basketball game to do homework. Don't stay in your room and not spend time with your parents. Don't sit around waiting for better days because, soon enough, you'll be sitting in your college dorm room on a Friday night as a second-semester freshman wishing you were back in high school.

Walk a little slower down the hall and take in the posters. Read your school newspaper. Have lunch with your favorite, and least favorite, teachers. Have as many people as possible sign your yearbook. Stop counting down the days until gradation and make every day count.

You'll be glad you did.