Well, the day has come. You’ve gone to your high school prom, graduated, spent the summer with your friends making endless memories, and now the day is finally here. You’re off to college. You think this new experience is going to be great, making new friends and new memories, but let me tell you something. There is nothing that can compare to what high school felt like, and you can bet yourself you’re going to miss that school more than anything.

High school offers that more homey feel, walking through the same halls every day, seeing the same faces every day, and going to your favorite teachers class. It is so much easier to manage your self during those four years than it is during the college years. Your time management is consisted of finishing what little homework you have during class time so you can make it out to that football game Friday night. Then there are those tests that you can study for right before the test or not even at all because you know the information that well. Trust me when I say that college is no where near like that.

In high school, you always see the same faces saying hi to all your friends as you pass them in the hallways. Sometimes, it’s not even your friends that you’re saying hi to but its the same person you’ve been passing in the halls for 4 years. In college, you walk around campus the same time every Monday, Wednesday, & Fridays and Tuesday & Thursdays, and you still manage to see different faces during those times. I always catch myself saying, “I don’t even know who that is”, at least once a day. There’s nothing like seeing the same familiar faces throughout the halls everyday and when you’re in college, you’re going to miss that.

There’s nothing like walking into class with your friends and being surrounded by them. Having your friends in class with you gives you that little extra push for yourself for wanting to be in class. You get excited when you know someone in class to make class feel that much less dreadful. In college, your classes are based upon your major so if your friends are a nursing major while you’re an education major, you can bet you’ll probably never see them unless it’s a required course. Just know that having class with your friends in high school is one of the perks that you’re going to miss in college.

With all the work from high school there are always those fun times that you always looked forward to. Spirit Week, Friday night football games, prom, dances, those are all things that do not exist in college. Spirit Week in high school was probably the best week every year because of how crazy and fun every one was. Everyone always dressed up, got in the spirit, and made that week one to remember every year. Those weeks in college don’t exist. Of course you could dress how ever you want in college and show up to class in slippers and footie pajamas but it’s not the same doing it by yourself. Prom was a day and night that was unforgettable no matter what school you went to. You got to dress up, be with your friends, as well as everyone else, and dance the night away. There is nothing that can compare to that night in college.

Then of course there’s nothing like your “squad”. Whether it’s those morning car rides, sitting down at breakfast together before the homeroom bell rings, at lunch, or you’re all gathered together for “Friendmas”, there is nothing in college that can compare to that. You’re going to miss seeing their faces everyday. You’re going to miss all those times you could call one of them and say, “I’m picking you up, we’re going to the mall and you’re sleeping over tonight”. You’re going to miss all the times that you think will never end. You make friends in college but nothing can compare to the friends you make in high school.

You count down the days until high school graduation but let me tell you something, stop and enjoy the time while you have it. High school is awesome. I was always told, “high school is going to be the best four years of your life”; it sounds so cliche but it’s so true. High school is the best time of your life. My high school experience was nothing short of amazing and I would do anything to go back to those hallways, those classrooms, and those same familiar faces again.