Summertime contains different meanings for all people. Our elders see it as another series of regular days with unbearable heat in the air. Middle-aged parents see the season as an opportunity for family cookouts and vacations, so they can make memories while their children are still young. The children break out of their routines and sense freedom when summer eradicates the ringing of school bells

However, there is one summer that defies those feelings and almost blurs them together: the summer before college. Seasons tend to breeze through the young anyway, but once another aspiring teenager graduates, time takes on an entirely new meaning. Life becomes all about self-discovery instead of the parental reassurance that everything will turn out fine.

So, there it is. We have finally graduated. We waited and prayed for graduation day for so long, but it transforms from fantasy into reality in the span of a few hours. We're on the edge of adulthood, yet we aren't quite sure about what we're getting ourselves into. We have ideas of what we want, but the path toward them is blurry. The childhood questions that had simple answers expand upon everything we've ever known. So the main question is: how do we prepare for what's next?

Well, we never know what the future may bring! We know we want college. We also spent our praying and waiting time to discover if we made it into our dream schools. We see ourselves owning who we are in our academic and social life before it's started, but again we never know what the future may bring. Maybe by some lucky chance, some of us know what and who we want to be in the world. On the other hand, some of us may not have a clue, other than we are going to be college freshmen when the summer sunsets. Ready or not, the future will come.

As we become adults, part of us wants to push forward to whatever the future brings. However, no matter how grown and independent we feel, there's a shadow in the back of our thoughts, aching to cherish what little remains of the summer before college and before life will change forever. We want youthful freedom and the grown-up assets. We want everything we had as a kid along with the adult concepts of our future.

This is the last summer of childhood. This summer is a learning process more important than any high school curriculum could teach. Therefore, I advise those in the midst of their summer before college to simply enjoy. Enjoy every adventure, every laugh, and every lesson. Know that even though those moments grow fewer in adulthood, they never truly disappear. Our childhood selves never disappear; we simply evolve into the people we always wanted to be.