As I begin my senior year of college I have a lot of thoughts going through my head. Many of them are my anxieties running wild because again, my life is going to change forever and very soon. But my head is also filled with nostalgic memories of the past three years and hopes for the one ahead of me.

Dear Senior Year of College,

Hello dear friend. I will proudly welcome you with open arms. I know that getting to my senior year unscathed is not an amazing feat, many do it and many are fare more successful than I. But I am extremely proud of myself for getting this far, for sticking with it and for having the much success that I have had in the past. So, Senior Year, I will make sure you are good to me, I will make sure you treat me well and I will make sure I conquer you.

The previous years have been rough. I have lost many people in my life throughout my college experience. I have grown apart from old friends and new friends as well. I have lost loved ones and beloved pets. At some points I have even lost myself. But now, entering my senior year I can say without a doubt that I am the happiest I have been since I left for college.

Make sure to help me to continue making the best of this. Make sure that I do my best, not only academically but socially. Make sure I don't only lose people but I gain some too. Make sure I don't dwell on what's coming but live for what what's happening. Make sure I make the most out of this year.

Senior year, you will be the year that I won't give up on my classes half way through the semester to only have a resurgence for finals. You will be the year I go and experience life as much as I can no matter how much time I have. You will be the year I don't stress about my GPA or how I'm going to finish writing a 10-page paper in two hours before class, because you are the year that I will be on top of it.

You will help me grow into the person I have always wanted to be and am becoming currently. You will help me not only grow my wings but also soar. I will not sit here and worry about what happens when I graduate and what I am going to do without my best friends, because you will prove to me that these people will always be apart of my life.

You will show me that not everyone leaves. You will show me that not everyone hurts me. And, you will show me that I am the maker of my own happiness. Most importantly you will be there with me to experience this, to experience the happiness and love and friendship. You are the beginning to the next milestone in my life and I am ready to take walk this path hand and hand with you.

Be prepared, because I know I am.

Always, the Rising Senior.