Seniors,

We all know how excited you are to move out of your home and into college. It's a great time -- the best time of your life some people say. However, once you get to college, you get slapped in the face with some harsh realities. I've compiled a list of things that you need to take advantage of before you move out, because once you're in college, everything changes...

1. Free food

Chances are pretty high that if you're living at home that means your mom is buying the groceries. When you get to college you're on your own. You have to pay for a meal plan or pay for groceries; either way, it stops being free. Clubs will often encourage you to join by offering "free food" because when you get to college you will do anything for free food.

2. Home-cooked meals

When you get to college you'll be eating in the cafeteria using your meal plan. This is fine at first and when you toured that school had so many food options. However when it comes down to it you have to eat three times a week, seven days a week. That's 21 meals and not a whole lot of variety on college campus. After awhile everything starts to taste the same and there's nothing you miss more than a good home-cooked meal. So even though it might sound fun to go out to dinner with your friends during high school, don't -- savor every single homemade meal you can get.

3. Laundry

Laundry on a college campus is a nightmare. First, you have to know how to do laundry. If your mom still does your laundry it's probably best if you stay home and find a different alternative to college because you're living the good life. Second, there are never enough washers and dryers. This means it's a constant battle over who gets to do their laundry and ends with people pulling other people's clothes out of the machines and angry notes being left. Really, it's a mess. The second your laundry is done you better be there, ready to take it before someone else does. Also don't even think about owning nice clothing...your Lulu leggings will get stolen out of the dryer and the washing machine beats your clothes up pretty well. Also I bet at home you never have to pay to do your laundry and at college, you do.

4. Classes all in the same building

High school may seem like prison, being stuck in the same building for eight hours every single day. Most college students miss that though...not the school for eight hours, five days a week thing; college students miss having all their classes in the same building. If it's raining, snowing, windy, sleeting, hailing, or any other kind of weather, you have to walk outside to class in that weather. In high school, you watched the weather through the window while you were nice in dry in your classroom. Trust me, you'll miss that on the sub-zero winter days when you're trudging to class.

5. Coffee for enjoyment vs coffee for necessity

In high school you were pretty cool if you walked in with your Starbucks coffee, you know, the one you just posted a pic of on Instagram. In college, there's no time to put pictures of your coffee on social media because in college you need coffee to survive. In high school, maybe you had to pull a couple all-nighters; in college, it's a regular thing and without coffee you will not make it through the day. So enjoy your special coffee drinks while they're making you look cool because in a few short months your cup of coffee is simply a sign of defeat that school is kicking your butt.

6. Teachers who know your name

In high school, chances are pretty good that your teachers knew your name. You'd have a classroom of about 30 students and it wasn't too hard to learn everyone's name. You could talk to your teachers, they knew your parents from conferences, and it wasn't hard to have a personal connection with them. Embrace this. Love your teachers. Get all the recommendation letters you can out of them. When you get to college you will have professors who will never be able to put your name to your face because you're one of thousands of students they have. Lectures can be huge and even if you go to professor's office hours, they still might not remember you! This makes recommendation letters and interpersonal relationships much more challenging.

7. Your own bedroom/bathroom

Space. Take advantage of all the space you have. In a few short months you'll be living in a shoe box and you'll be sharing that shoe box with a roommate. Your personal bathroom with all your organized drawers? Now it's becoming a shower caddy that you carry down the hall to the bathroom that you share with the 50 other people living on your floor.

8. Mom and Dad

I know you're so excited to move out and be independent. Mom and Dad won't make the rules anymore, you will. It's exciting and all but a few months into college you'll start realizing you still rely on your parents for a lot. You'll spend an hour on the phone with your mom telling her everything that's been going on because she's not there to ask you after school how your day was. You'll be calling your dad to ask him any mechanical questions that somehow only dads know the answer to. You may think you're excited to move out now, but in reality, once you're gone you're going to miss them a ton. They're the only people who have your back and love you no matter what.

9. Your job

Now, I know your job might not be the most exciting thing in the world and you honestly just can't wait to move to college so you can quit. But, appreciate your job you have now! When you get to college you'll be so swamped with classes and extracurriculars, working might not be a reality. It's so easy to spend money but it's so hard to make money and it's tough to find a job when you don't have a car on campus. So take advantage of your job, work as much as you can, and save that money!

10. Teachers who take attendance

I get it, it's so easy to skip class, you're a senior you can sign yourself out of school so why even go? You drive so who says you have to show up? Oh wait, it's that dumb thing called attendance that all your teachers take. If you don't show up to class they start calling your parents. If you have enough absences or late attendance marks they may start threatening you saying you can't go to prom. I get it, it's super annoying, and you can't wait for college because they don't take attendance. Professors who take attendance motivate you to go to class because if you don't they'll know and they won't do any favors for you and it can negatively impact your grade. Most professors don't take attendance however, and it's so easy to skip because your bed is so warm and Netflix is calling your name. Don't do it. Don't skip. Appreciate attendance forcing you to go to class.

11. Saving money

It's so easy to spend your money on dinners out, movies, etc. When you get to college though you need that money. We've already determined it's hard to find a job in college and it's hard to have time for a job, so you're relying on the money you saved while working in high school to pay your bills, buy your books, and feed you. Budgeting your money is one of the most important things you will ever learn.

12. Normal sleep schedule

In high school you went to school, went to sports practice, came home, ate, did homework, and went to bed. In college you take 15-minute naps every chance you get and don't sleep at night...but that's only on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays...oh and every other Wednesday. On Tuesdays and the other Wednesdays it's a three hour nap and then you usually sleep for about 45 minutes at some point between 4-5am. Confusing sleep schedule? I'll say. Appreciate your semi-normal sleep schedule in high school while you can.

13. Dinners out

If you live at home there's a good chance your family goes out to eat every once in awhile and your parents pay. When you get to college you don't have money to go out to eat anymore and if you do have money it's only to get something off the dollar menu at McDonald's, not for the nice dinners your parents take you out to.

14. Naps for enjoyment vs naps for necessity

264 hours (11 days) is the longest a person can go without sleep. In college, you've tried this and maybe even come pretty close. It reaches a point, especially during finals week where you have to sleep or else you won't be able to function. This is when naps become essential. In high school you napped if you were tired or bored or just because you felt like it; in college you nap to survive. You'd rather nap for an hour and have 23 hours to do all your homework in as opposed to sleeping for eight hours a night leaving you with only 16 hours to do your homework.

15. Having a car

Having a car, or access to a car, is one of the greatest things about living at home. When you get to college many schools don't allow freshmen to have cars on campus and many parents won't let their students bring a car, even if the school allows it. Cars give you so much more freedom to go where you want to go. In college, you learn public transportation- including how to get all your groceries from Meijer onto the bus and all the way back to your dorm. College also makes students walk everywhere because you don't have your car. Cars are a luxury we often overlook because we take them for granted but once you get to college you'll be missing that junker.

16. Sleeping longer than five hours at a time

College is a lot of homework and a lot of studying. Unfortunately, that usually doesn't leave time for a lot of sleep, as much as we wish it did. Take advantage of all the time you have to sleep in high school. Sleep in on weekends, take naps, enjoy all the sleep you can get because in college you won't get much.

17. Glancing over your notes vs. all-nighters with your textbook

Tests in high school involved looking over the study guide, breezing through the notes, and asking your teacher any last minute questions. Tests in college include reading entire chapters of your textbook because the notes make no sense, signing up for tutoring, and arranging study meetings with kids from your class to try and make sense of everything. It's not unusual to find students asleep, face in book, in the library, especially during finals week.

18. Your dog

You don't realize it in high school but your furry friend is actually your best friend. He was there through every heart break, every sick day, and every squirrel or mail man who tried to step foot in your yard. When you get to college your dog isn't there with you and there are usually no dogs around in general. Seeing dogs on campus is actually the highlight of your entire week and if the owner is nice enough to let you pet them, it's the highlight of your entire week. So give Fido some extra hugs and kisses because in a couple months you'll be saying bye to him until Thanksgiving.

19. Structured days

In high school you have the exact same schedule every day. You color coded your binders with your notebooks with your textbook covers and life was very organized, very structured, and very good. Club meetings were on the exact same day every week and sports practice times never changed. In college you have certain classes every Monday/Wednesday/Friday, different classes Tuesday/Thursday, some classes were only Monday/Wednesday, all classes are different times with different professors and then there's all your different clubs at completely different times on very different days. You'll miss the structured days of high school when you get to the crazy ones of college where you absolutely cannot survive without a planner.

20. High school parking lots

In high school juniors, seniors, and faculty drove to school. The school only sold enough parking passes for the spots they had and everyone came and left around the same time. The parking lot got congested when school got let out but otherwise it wasn't too bad. In college, parking is equivalent to the Hunger Games. There's more cars with passes than there are spots in the parking lots. Everyone is coming and going at the same time. Cars don't stop for pedestrians and pedestrians don't stop for cars. There are buses, delivery trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, and longboards all over the place and you're surprised if you can find a parking spot or cross the street without dying.

College is one of the greatest times of your life and you'll make lifelong friends with memories you'll share for years to come. However, high school isn't as awful as you're making it out to be. In reality, high school and living at home have a lot of perks that you're going to miss when you move to college. So next time you just can't wait to move out and experience college, remember these points and do some laundry, just because you can without anyone yelling at you. But most importantly, enjoy the rest of your senior year and your time at home because you'll be moving out and into college before you know it!