This past Sunday was the graduation at my high school. Not going to lie, I got pretty emotional and nostalgic. I haven’t thought much about high school over the course of my first year at college, but when I saw the Instagram posts and Snapchats of my high school, I couldn’t help but think about who I was a year ago and who I have become now.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of college life, but this weekend, I was able to take a step back and reflect on my life in high school. I know that I constantly say that I hated high school, but honestly looking back, I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunities I was given and the friends that I made.

For those of you who just graduated high school, first of all congratulations!!

You should be celebrating that you just made it through some of the hardest years of your life. This is the time for you to be proud of yourself that you have made it through one of the greatest achievements.

However, once the celebrating and partying dies down, you should begin thinking about how you want to approach college. The summer before college, all I did was travel or work. I went to London, Paris, and Italy with my family and I was a hostess at a restaurant in Dallas. I honestly didn’t even think or prepare for moving to college. It hit me like a ton of bricks the day before my flight that I was actually leaving my home.

One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t cherish the time that I had with my friends and family. It sounds stupid and cheesy, but I wish that I had spent more days watching movies with my parents or going out with my best friends. Looking back on it, I have so many fun memories with people during high school and I should’ve made more during the summer before college. I am eternally grateful for the memories and friends that I’ve made here in college, but I wish that I could go back in time to be with my family for longer.

So, this summer, you may get busy with random things, but just remember that once you go to college, you see your friends and family probably three to four times over the course of the year. I would spend as much time as you can with the people that you love the most before you come to college. Besides that, happy graduation and happy summer!