Dear high school seniors,
I bet you’re feeling overwhelmed with emotions right about now. This whole year has been your year to be celebrated. You’ve had to prepare for a new chapter while adding the final pages to your current chapter. It’s exhilarating, but, yes, also exhausting.
While the senior events are happening and your weeks are packed with project due dates, award ceremonies, graduation practices and lunches with your friends from elementary school, you should start to consider a few things.
Focus on goals you have. Goals for the final month of high school, for the summer, for the next few years, and for life. Learn about who you want to be, and learn about what you want to do in your lifetime. Every one of you has an opportunity to make an impact on the world, and this is the prime time to make your wave.
If you don’t know what you want to do, that is perfectly okay- that just means you are able to explore whatever you think could interest you. If you don’t want to think long term, think tomorrow. Think about what you want to be accomplishing every single day. Then make strides toward achieving those goals.
Appreciate every single person surrounding you right now. Whether it’s the kid who annoys you in your math class, or your best friends who you don’t know how you’re going to say goodbye to, be present in every situation. Soon enough, you’re not going to see these people all the time, and you’re going to be meeting hundreds of new people. So appreciate all the good and the bad surrounding you now, and learn from it.
Life isn’t peaches after high school. Once you graduate, you are considered an adult by many standards, and reality will most likely hit you abruptly. Be ready. Life isn’t going to give you extra credit so you’ll pass the class, or excuse you to the nurse’s office when you have a headache. This adulthood is really exciting, but if you don’t start preparing for the weight of it, it will take a toll on you. Realize what maturity is, and try and practice it.
After high school, you’ll have so many opportunities. It really is so exciting. Whether you are heading back to school for a few more years in the Fall or starting to work, you’ll find that you have so many options on how you get to your end goal. Talk to people and get to know them. Good relationships can take you far. Don’t stop pushing yourself, but also don’t be afraid to ask for help. Set your mind on what you want to do and keep your eyes on the prize.
This is the time that you have been waiting for. This is what you have been in school thirteen years for. This is your time. Get ready for the world out of high school. It’s less sheltered, more complicated, but so rewarding.
Enjoy the last of your high school careers, you’ve earned all the joys you’re going to experience. Soak in all of the laughs, the memories, and the life lessons. I promise you, you’re going to look back on it one day and thank yourself for making the most of it.
Sincerely,
A college freshman