Dear High Schooler,

I’ll start off by saying that high school will come to an end. Whether that is three years or six months away, sooner than you know it, you will be sitting at graduation, listening to your valedictorian address your class and receiving your diploma. Just like I did, you’ll probably turn your tassel, say your good-byes, capture some pictures with friends and family, and then race back to the same front-parking lot the yellow school bus dropped you off your first day of freshman year. And you will not want to look back. But please do.

If you’re like me, you can’t wait to get out of your small town, to meet other people you haven’t grown up with and known since second grade. To start brand-new, and be in a completely new place where nobody knows your name or where you came from. You’re sick of being around the same people day after day, the same drama occurring over and over. Everyone around you knows every little thing that happens in your town, because there is nothing better to do. You feel trapped under a certain label or reputation you can’t escape and can’t wait to be moving into your dorm room freshman year and be meeting your new best friends.

But even if you hated high school as much as I did, I promise there are things you will begin to miss as you sit in your dorm room along with a complete stranger the first time, having just said good-bye to your parents. You are now on your own. Everything you do, day in and day out, is entirely and completely of your discretion. Your mother isn’t there to cook you meals and your father is not there to explain your math homework. You’re around a completely new group of strangers, people you have not grown up with your whole life. Believe me, these strangers will become your best friends soon enough, but there will always be a part of you that misses the people you left behind.

“Don’t wish your life away.” So many people told me this in high school when I was wishing to be in college already, and I never took them seriously. If I could go back in time and change one thing, I would have listened.

Though you hate being around the same people and in the same town day after day, appreciate the time you have left. Your high school years are the final stretch of your childhood life and home. Enjoy the moments you have left with the people you’ve grown up with. Take in all the memories you make going on late night drives with your best friends, visiting the diner in town you’ve loved since you were a kid. Sit down and order milkshakes and laugh about the times you fell off your bikes as kids and went on awkward first dates in seventh grade. Eighteen years of living in your hometown will come to an end sooner than you know it, but make sure you make these last years count.

Go to your high school’s football games, even if they don’t win. Grab your friends and go to that homecoming dance or male pageant because chances are you’ll find yourself having much more fun than sitting at home. Dress up for spirit week and take lots of pictures, because you’ll always remember how funny it was wearing superman and batman onesies to school on superhero day with your best friend. Make friends with the girl who sits next to you in Algebra and plan a coffee date to study for your next test. Take up your parents on their offers to bake cookies or go for a walk around the block. Cuddle up with your dog or cat at night and enjoy the time you have with them before moving away to college. Take that babysitting job on a Saturday night and cherish the memories you make watching your little neighbors grow up. Embark upon every opportunity given, and make the most of everything you can with the people around you.

Most importantly, be yourself. Once you toss that graduation cap in the air with the rest of your graduating class, nobody will ever remember what your hair looked like, what you wore to school each day, the car you drove, or how “popular” your group of friends was. You’ll be remembered for the type of person you were, how funny, witty, kind and bubbly your personality was. You will attract the people who matter by truly being yourself everywhere you go, and the friends you take with you after graduation will be those people who like you for who the person are, inside and out.

You’re still in high school, and you still have time left to be the person you want to be, cherish the memories and the people around you, and most of all, make the most of the years you have left. Embrace it.

Sincerely,

A college student who wishes I did it a little differently