Dear High School Seniors,

High school and college are two very different ballparks. It's like all the teachers say, no one is going to baby you in college. While it is true that no one is going to hold your hand and guide you through every little thing, there is help where you need it. The professors will every once in a while remind you about the essay that is due next Wednesday. They will be willing to help you out as much as you need, as long as you go to their study hours and ask! If something comes up and you need an extension, ask, they're people too, they will understand.

Straying from that point, there are so many on-campus resources that you can and should utilize. From the small, basic things like tutoring or even free food, to the larger scale things like mental health services. It is all there if you need it, you just have to look for it. There are services to help with almost any problem that can come up in your years of college.

Make friends, join clubs, join an organization; just enjoy yourself! It helps to enhance your college experience. Having someone to have meals with or someone to go to an art show with is bound to be a good time. It is the little things that count towards making college amazing.

There will be a lot of things that change in your first year of college. You might find a new favorite food, you might become closer friends with someone that you weren't close to in high school. The friends that you had in high school will probably go their separate ways and it'll be okay; you'll make new friends, you'll meet new people. It'll hurt at first but understand that it's a new environment with new people. You may not be around said high school friends all the time, so open yourself up to new opportunities.

All this being said, congratulations on your acceptance to college! I hope it's the one you've dreamed about and if it's not, you can always work towards it. There are always community colleges that you can go to for a year and get killer grades at. You take those and then transfer into the school of your dreams.

A super important thing to remember is that things can always get done; you can achieve anything as long as you believe you can! Just remember to not be lazy and never stop working- senior year isn't over yet!