Junior year,

You were filled with ups and downs. Lots of 21st birthdays, and lots of memories (and a few we won't remember). When I looked back and thought about you (junior year), I realized how fast the time is flying by. Just yesterday I feel like I was walking into my freshman dorm room for the first time, now in a year we graduate and this chapter in life will be over. College is now very reminiscent of high school. Your older friends graduate year after year til finally now its going to be our turn. Some of us will stay close friends and be invited to each other's weddings a couple years down the road. Others, just like high school, we will never talk to or see again (aside from the occasional Facebook post).

This year, you made me realize that real life is approaching faster; professional opportunities are now becoming more of a hot topic than where are the good parties at. Internships, career fairs, and job interviews were integral parts of this year and now are even more crucial given our impending future. We no longer congratulate our friends on how many shots they took in one night (sometimes we still do) but more often we wish them luck and go for drinks when they land a new position on campus or a great internship. The questions at holidays and family gatherings are no longer about where you are going to school and what's your roommate like, but instead are now what are you majoring in and what do you plan on doing after college. These are the buzz words that every aunt, uncle, and grandparent brings up, we know its coming followed quickly behind asking about our love life.

With each year your friend circle changes as people move on and in the fall my friend circle will be dramatically different. The nostalgia and senioritis will begin to set in. Junior year wasn't our turn, but now in just a few short months when we return to campus, we will be doing so for the last time. Our last almost everything as college students.

Thank you to this year for teaching me to appreciate every moment, every person, every awesome professor, because in just one year it will be gone. I've seen so many people cry and laugh as they finish college. A mixture or relief and sadness; now junior year is passing us off and ushering us into a new time where we will be getting jobs, preparing to move to another city, getting engaged, going to grad school, and who knows what else. Thank you to junior year for everything you taught me about myself, about the world, and about life. It isn't our time to move on quite yet, but soon college will become Alma Mater and student will become alumni. It was a great year...time for an even better one.