Dear Class of 2020,
I’ll bet you’ve read a ton of these letters telling you to cherish high school because you’ll miss it once you leave for college. I’m sure you’ve heard it time and time again from relatives and random family friends at barbecues you would have rather not been at, “High school will be the best years of your life.” This is one of the biggest lies that you’ve been told thus far. Here’s the truth: you probably won’t really miss high school. You’ll hopefully look back at it fondly, but you won’t want to go back. Instead of looking back, seeing what could have been and wondering if you lived it to the fullest, enjoy the time you have right now.
Once you get to college, you won’t be able to catch your breath. You’ll arrive on move-in day, Instagram a picture of your brand-new dorm and say tearful goodbyes to your parents. Then you’re alone. All of a sudden your life is a whirlwind. You’re meeting new guys, new girls, finding your way around campus, spending an hour getting ready for your first college party only to get so gross and sweaty that it looks like you spent time as an extra on the set of a low-budget zombie movie. You stay up until 3 A.M. every night just because you can, try to understand that one professor’s accent, join clubs, rush a fraternity or sorority, meet even more people. Then, you take your first exam and realize you need to spend more time in the library. Your friends you met your first week want to meet up for lunch, but you know you should be studying and saving your money. Now you have a paper and two exams on friday plus an event you want to attend Thursday night. Before you can exhale, you’ve taken your finals and it’s the end of your first semester of college.
Your second semester starts, and you’d think you would have a routine. Now there are more exams, papers and projects. Instead of finding your classes, you’re now worried about apartment hunting, rent, budgeting, still meeting new people, still trying to figure out what that professor is saying, and still spending way more time than you’d care to admit at the library. You worry about credits for next year, registration, and whether you're on track for your major. You might get an internship, have to buy suits and worry about things like commuting. Before you know it, you have three weeks left of your freshman year and you’ve barely had the chance to blink.
Right now you have one foot in and one foot out of the adult world; you’re old enough to have a realistic glimpse into your future, yet you’re young enough to fantasize and dream. You’re right on the edge of what the adult world has to offer: independence, new responsibilities, being able to pursue what you find valuable and not what the educational system tells you is important. You’re probably going to spend the summer anticipating college, but try not to. Let yourself be lazy. Go on road trips, go to concerts, spend your money, make memories with friends before everybody has separate lives. Take everything in, and take everything slowly because before you know it your life will be moving faster than you ever thought it could and you will be pushed to your limits. College is amazing, but take a deep breath and enjoy your last few months of adolescence before you take your first steps into the real world.
