Hello my fellow seniors and welcome to your last year in your basic academic career! I understand that you’re excited, enthralled, and enthusiastic to finish up this year and finally get on with your life, but as much as I hate to be a Debbie Downer, you need to chill.

Don’t be mad at me, I think you have every right to celebrate perhaps one of the most memorable years of your life, but now is the time to tell you the reality of senior year: that it’s going to happen once and only once, and just like a Snapchat, it’ll be over before you know it. Believe me, I was just like you, with the most severe case of senioritis, counting down the days to graduation and hoping to get an A on my senior English paper, but looking back, there were a lot of senior year moments that I never got to fully cherish because of how rushed and careless I was.

Attend every football game, whether it be home or away. As much as Hollywood makes it cliché to be under the Friday night lights, the experience of breaking your opponents’ ear drums in the student section will be incomparable than attending a game when you’re no longer a student. Once your final home game ends, the realization that your high school career is deteriorating will hit you like a train, and believe me, it’s a harrowing experience.

Another piece of advice that I would give you is to invest more time with your friends. Your friends now will be the ones who will give you advice for a lifetime. Plan trips, play something fun, create a study group, or just do simple things like a Target run with them because before you know it, next August will come and you’re going to bid farewell to your friends for quite a long time. And if you ever have any bumps in the road with anybody, iron them out. It’s not worth leaving anyone out of your circle with no closure whatsoever, creating unnecessary drama and anxiety.

Next is about college applications, two words that any prospective college student dreads hearing. My only advice is don’t sweat it. It is solely up to you as to how many colleges you want to apply to, or whether or not you want to attend college at all. Just going to attend community college? Go right ahead. Think you’re worthy enough to get into Yale? I believe in you, go apply! Found your dream school in a small liberal arts school in Nebraska? Go for it! Not going to college at all? That’s totally fine, I believe you’ll be successful in any venture you pursue. Keep your eyes on the prize, prioritize application deadlines and essays, and college applications won’t be any kind of stress on your radar.

Finally, my last ounce of advice is that just do well in school. Don’t try to shrug off the smallest of assignments and don’t be lazy. I understand that as the final months wind down, so does the confidence and energy that comes with finishing that long paper or project or set of problems in a textbook, but your grades senior year are just as critical on college applications than those freshman year. Prioritize any assignments that may take a long time or have the shortest deadlines and if you’re taking any AP exams, study as early as you can comfortably.

Aside from academics, remember the little things that were always part of school, whether it be the periodical emergency drills that take class time away or the occasional pep assemblies that seemed so cheesy and cringe-worthy but in the end, that’s what made them great.

Also, remember your teachers, the people who you can trust with anything and help you grow spiritually and academically more than anyone else. Some of what motivates me to keep on doing what I enjoy is fueled by my teachers. If it weren’t for my favorite teachers, Mrs. Erfort, Ms. Buckley and Mr. Sieker, I wouldn’t be able to start writing for this site or take up a hobby in writing and journalism. They’re probably three of the greatest human beings I’ve been grateful to have as teachers. If you don’t have any close connections to a teacher, then senior year is the time to establish one.

The time between now and graduation day seems so far away, but in actuality, that long period of time will fly by before you know it. As you walk down that aisle and get that diploma that you’ve worked so hard to get, you’ll start to realize that the rest of your life begins at that moment. You’ll no longer see all the people you’ve known for God knows how long on a daily basis, never experience the hot messes of homecoming and prom, or having a hoarse voice after a long night at the student section of home games ever again.

When I was in AP Lit, I studied a plethora of poems revolving around one phrase, “Carpe diem”, meaning “seize the day”. That saying couldn’t be any more relevant during this year.