Well, it's official. I'm already halfway through my second year of college. Before I even have time to blink, I'll be graduating alongside the rest of my class and entering into the scary reality that is life. It's this realization of the complete and utter fear of becoming an adult that has forced me to reflect on growing up, up to this point, and to take a look at my friends who are getting ready to graduate this spring and how they must be feeling. So, in a nutshell, here are the stages of growing up through college:

Most of us turned 18 our last year of high school, allowing us our first taste of adulthood.

We were feeling on top of the world with our ability to buy lottery tickets and go to R-rated movies without being carded (most of the time).

Then we entered college. We were back to being the smallest (and youngest) fish in the pond. But this didn't even faze us. We were ready for whatever this new world had to throw at us.

But then the thought of needing an internship like the rest of your classmates for the upcoming summer started to set in.

All of a sudden, the real world was getting thrown at us (yes, it was a small portion, but a portion nonetheless).

Some of us did get that internship we applied for. The rest of us worked in the food industry or as a lifeguard just to make enough money to either pay rent or buy food for the upcoming school year.

We enter our second year of college feeling comfortable, despite a likely hectic summer experience.

The year begins passing at a rapid rate. All of a sudden we're on winter break, celebrating Christmas and New Year's, and back to having to think about internships and summer jobs.

And, to add onto all that, now we have to declare a major.

Some of us have known what we were going to be since childhood. Another portion of us figured it out over the past three or four semesters. But there are still a select few that have no clue what to declare and will simply declare something so that they can stay at school.

However, we will all reach that pivotal point where we do know what we want to do and go through our third year taking classes with few problems. By now, we're all used to the process of applying to internships and things seem like they're starting to fall into place.

Then we enter our fourth year and are slapped in the face with the reality of entering the real world in less than 12 months.

Will we be scared out of our minds? Absolutely. Are we ready to grow up? Absolutely not. But will it be an adventure worth experiencing?

So even though we'll all face days post-graduation like this:

Or this:

Either way we'll be experiencing one of life's greatest adventures. We all have something to look forward to after graduation, whether it's traveling the world, working a dream job, having a family, writing a book, and so on. Around every turn, there's a new chapter of our lives just waiting to be written.

As Herman Melville said in his novel “Moby Dick,” “I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.” We should all take this approach as we head into adulthood, because let's face it: It's easier to laugh and be excited for the things that are to come than to spend our precious time fearing them.