Day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything's different.

It seems so close but so far away, graduation. Some of you can hardly wait and some of you aren’t quite ready to leave yet but don’t get too excited, college isn’t all it’s made up to be.

Right now, in these moments of your senior year, you have freedom. Yes, your mom may not let you go out on Friday night with your friends, or you may be grounded at the moment, but you don’t have three five-page papers due, two exams next week, spend countless hours in the library, and have finals coming up. These last few months of your high school career are so important and they’ll be the most memorable, so please enjoy them.

Don’t get me wrong, college is awesome. You have the freedom to do whatever you want, but you also don’t have your mom to remind you to study and to nag you to get your homework done before it’s due. These things become your responsibility and you’ll find yourself struggling to get all of your stuff together. You’ll find yourself calling your mom every day when before you just wanted her to leave you alone.

Laugh with your friends, go to all of the school related events, and spend time with everyone that you can because you won’t see them anymore once everyone goes their separate ways. College is tough, but feeling like you’re going through it alone is even harder. Yes, you’ll make new friends in college, but no one will replace the ones you have back home.

Whether you struggle in college or you do great, just know that you’re not alone. Everyone around you is feeling the same way, so don’t get down on yourself about it. High school was the easy part, but you’re about to step into the world and see things a lot differently.

If you have a group of friends that you hangout with every day now, keep them. You’re going to need the people that helped you get that far when you’re college. They will remind you of all the fun times you guys had together when things start getting hard.

As you take your seats one by one and your valedictorian takes the stage on graduation day, it’ll start to hit you. The faces you’ve seen every day for the last four years you won’t see anymore. No more seeing your favorite teacher in the halls and avoiding the one you hated, no more doing stupid things at lunch with your friends, and no more of the sport you put so much time and effort into. It’s time to close that chapter in your book, but it’s also time to start writing a new one.

Make sure you make it worth reading.