Senior year is the most exciting year for many kids in high school.

You finally made it to your last year, and you've basically been ready to leave since you got here.

I think the first lesson you'll learn your senior year is that you're way more prone to getting senioritis than you think you are. I know I was.

It only took me the third week of school to start leaving a few classes earlier than I was supposed to.

I did that for a few days until I realized–shit, I was slipping.

But who could really blame me? I mean they let us have the option to leave school early, and then expect us not to abuse the privilege a few... a couple times.

And believe me, I could name more than one person who was just like me.

Great first lesson to learn, and it's probably a lesson I'll have to continue learning until the day I leave this place.

Second lesson you'll learn is, applying to college may be easier than it was for our parents, and generations before us–but it's still way more stressful than it should be.

There's so many components that go into it, and so many things that are easy to forget.

Like financial aid, and the "hey mom... what's my social security number..." and let's not forget my favorite "screw it, I'm not going to college" moments.

In the end, many of us will end up in a college somewhere, which is a great segue into my third lesson.

The third lesson, and one of my favorites, is: do NOT be embarrassed to go to your local community college.

There's always been this common misconception that if you go to community college, you just weren't smart enough to go to some big fancy school, which really isn't true.

It's an easy and cheaper way to start your college education, and it's the route that many people take, and there should never be any shame in that.

I was never thrilled about the idea of going to community college, or "high school 2.0," as I liked to call it.

But it only took my local community college one visit to my school for me to realize that it isn't as bad as I had randomly worked it out to be.

Going to community college does not mean you're stuck.

It does not mean you're going nowhere.

It means that you're starting your education in a smaller school, and getting used to the college life... maybe even figuring out what it is you want to do for the rest of your life.

This really was my favorite lesson to have learned.

The fourth lesson I learned was that I needed to stay on top of my work. Which did not go too well at first.

I went from being the kid who had her homework done a week in advance to the girl who was doing her homework the period before it was due.

Not good, I know.

Once my laziness started being reflected in my grades, I realized I needed to shape up.

I had never been that kid who didn't stay on top of her stuff. I mean like I said, I was always that kid who had her project done the day after it had been assigned.

So listen kids, just stay on top of your stuff. Because it's hard to get back on the horse after you've fallen off–and that's coming straight from the source.

The fifth and final lesson that everyone learns is what I would personally like to call "Go time."

This lesson is kind of a sad one to learn.

This "go time" lesson basically is that there will be a moment that you realize–this is going to be your last time and your only time.

It's the last year that you have a daily routine. Which sounds weird, but it'll be weird once you start waking up with nothing to do.

It's the last year you have to get your life together, before you get thrown into what is called "the real world," as if we haven't experienced it yet.

It won't take you long to realize that there isn't much time left.

I guess that's the point I'm at.

I know now that looking around, there isn't much time left.

In just a few short months, I'll be out of high school and starting a new chapter of my life.

A new chapter where I'll start learning new lessons, and meeting new people, and trying new things.

So whether you just learned these lessons, you learned them a long time ago, or you're years away from learning them, they're still important.