Dear high school seniors,

Treasure these last few months. Take in any and everything around you. No one is kidding when they say time flies by. With spring break right around the corner, time only gets faster. Before you know it, prom will be here and then the rest of your high school career will be winding down.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “I just want to be done!” Understandable, but here are my two cents: enjoy your last few months. You’ll never be there for the same reason again. Four years of memories, tears, laughter, and stress. Four years of busy-ness, growth, understanding, and knowledge. Four years preparing you for a life on your own.

Take a look around you. Look at all of your classmates and be thankful for what’s around you. These last few months are so precious and are months full of so many memories. It’s these last months that wrap up the four years of friendships made.

The overused “been there, done that” could not relate more to the gist of what high school is. Once you’re out of high school, you look back and reminisce about all of the times you had, good and bad. You thank the stars that you’ve moved onto another chapter of your life. But remember this: don’t take things for granted while you still have them. It sounds simple and uncomplicated, but it takes so much to recognize so little.

I know that senioritis is so real, and whether you’ve determined where you’re going or you’re stuck at a crossroads, believe me, that crossroads is so real because there’s such a weight to the decision of where you’re going to spend four years of your life and make a new home for yourself.

In all of this, my point is that it’s important to see through the typical day-to-day. Look at everything like you are never going to see it again because you will never see high school the same way again.

Despite the fact that I’m only a freshman in college, I still reminisce about high school and remember all of the fun and exciting and especially embarrassing times I had. We all know that high school is plain and awkward, but it’s a time in your life where you’re changing and growing. You develop into a new person who’s more mature and becoming their true self towards the end of high school.

Before you know it, you’ll be walking out of graduation with an empty (spoiler) diploma holder in hand, a smile on your face, and a tear in your eye (some will have more tears than others). Walking out of the place I graduated from is a memory that I will remember forever. It is a memory of moving into a new part of life and taking a leap of faith into new surroundings.