To whoever is reading this: Hi. Answer this question: What stage of life are you in? High school? College? The "real world?" Wherever you are, think about how fast life has flown by.

I can't get over how fast my 22 years have gone by. 22 years––holy s**t. I can remember my first loose tooth, the day my sister was born, the day I found out Santa and the Easter Bunny weren't real (sorry to break it to you if you didn't already know that) and everything else in between up until this moment right now.

I thought it was all a joke, ya know, when everyone told me not to wish the years away when I cried about wanting to be older. I'm writing this the day before I graduate college and when I tell you I can remember the first day of freshman year here, I mean I can tell you what I was wearing down to the color of the nail polish I had on my fingers. For my entire life, I always wished to be older than I was so I could do whatever I wanted. I couldn't wait for the milestones: first day of middle school, first crush, first kiss, high school, boyfriends, drivers license, friends, getting accepted into college, high school graduation, college move-in day and college graduation. As each one of those milestones passed, I felt unstoppable. I wanted to conquer more so I started wishing for the days to fly so I could fit more successes under my belt.

With new milestones in mind my freshman year of college, I sat down and made a list of goals for my college years. The goals stated: make new friends, be in the starting lineup, get good grades, become involved and last but not least, make it count. As freshman year passed and I reached all of my goals, I created a new list for sophomore year, and then again for junior year. When junior year rolled around, I had written on my list “get 100th hit.” It was then when I really realized that I had to slow down and take advantage of every piece of my life. An injury changed not only my goals but my perspective as well. This injury costed me six months of the game I loved. I used to cry because I knew how fast the time went and I only had so much of the game left. It was then I realized I had to stop trying to do everything at super speed. I realized that I had to slow down and cherish it all because soon, all of the milestones and successes would just be a big blur without any memories and good times behind them.

With my timeframe still in the back of my mind, I made my college career count not only in the classroom and on the field, but with my friends. This year was the hardest year by far. This year I had to say goodbye to a lot of things that I never pictured “giving up.” I never imagined playing my last collegiate game, I never imagined having to say goodbye to my best friends who live all over the country, I never imagined not having to wake up for class and I never imagined packing up my room at college for good.

While making these memories last, I realized that the one thing that came out of all of this is happiness. I am happy that I was introduced to the game I love back when I was a kid, I am happy that I grew up with such awesome friends, I am happy to have such an amazing family, I am happy that I graduated from high school with a scholarship to college, I am happy that I made new forever friends in college, I am happy I played beside my teammates and most importantly, I am happy to have made it this far.

To whoever is reading this: slow down. Don’t wish away your years no matter how bad things are or how excited you are for the future. Take advantage of the the loose teeth, the magic of holidays, all of the days leading up to you being older, take advantage of it all. Trust me when I say it happens fast. Remember, there is no turning back. Leave it all on the field, leave it all in the classroom, leave it all for someone else to grow and leave your mark. Everything good comes to an end. Sure, you’re closing one chapter of your life but you are opening up another one. One full of success and all of the things you wished upon when you were a little child. If you are guilty of wishing away your years in your past chapter, when you go to write the newest one, make sure you take your time and enjoy what’s going on around you. There is plenty to be seen, loved and cherished.

To everyone graduating high school or college, to everyone raising a child and a family, to everyone looking for the perfect job and to everyone else who falls in the in-betweens, good luck.