Almost exactly a year ago, I decided on where I wanted to go to college. It was thrilling- finally knowing where I was going to spend the next four years of my life. All of high school had led up to this moment, and I had done it.

After you choose, though, no one prepares you for what comes next. For the remainder of your senior year and that following summer, you hit a wall: a huge, solid, towering brick wall of boredom and stir craziness. Remember all those times you said you just had to graduate right now and go to college? Multiply that feeling times ten, and you’ve got second semester of senior year. Classes don’t seem to have a point to them anymore. Teachers are already counting down the days until exams. The class asshole is singlehandedly planning the senior prank that will definitely get them suspended and not caring about it.

It’s total anarchy.

Throughout all of this, you're also handed a ton of conflicting advice. Your teachers, parents and every adult that has ever existed are telling you to hold on as tight as you can. They tell you to savor high school but look ahead to the future, to plan for college, a career, and a life. They tell you to hold on until they insist you let go, and somehow you're expected to immediately be ready to move out and start the next phase of your life.

Spoiler alert: it doesn't work that way.

Chances are, you won't be ready right after that graduation cap goes flying off your head. Hell, you won't even be ready when you're sitting in your dorm minutes after your parents have dropped you off at your new home. Going to college takes a lot of preparation, both physically and mentally. It is okay to miss Friday night lights, prom, and your friends.

It is okay to miss what you have right now.

The only advice I can give as a current college freshman is to slow the hell down. Pump the brakes, because once this chapter of your life is gone, it’s gone forever. The next few years of your life will be some of the most fun and exciting you will have ever had. But for now, soak it all in and appreciate high school and all it brings with it. Even though you say you hate it and that you never want to see anyone associated with it ever again, someday you're really going to miss this.