Whether you’re in high school or college, April always leaves us wondering “where did time go?” As a freshman in college, I feel like I just moved into my dorm yesterday, and for many seniors in high school, they sit there wondering how they’re even going to do that in the next three months. For seniors in college, they’re wondering when reality became real, and for freshmen in high school, they’re relieved that they’re finally done being the babies. April always brings a reality check before the end hits, summer comes, and a new chapter is about to begin.
April is the last full month of the school year. Although a huge part of me wishes it would just come and go, along with the rest of my responsibilities, there are a lot of things I know I’ll miss when I look back this time next April. Even looking back now, my life was completely different last April.
In April 2015, as a senior in high school, I was wondering why I was learning yet another new chapter of Pre-Calc and wondering who would ask me to prom. Yawning my way through a full seven-hour school day and counting down how many days were left until graduation, and more importantly, until summer, so I could be outside and free from all this pointless homework.
If I could go back and talk to myself last April or to anyone sitting in the position I was then, here’s what I would say: Look around. Every face you’re surrounded by in fourth period, just look at each person really carefully. Yes, even the kid you can’t wait to never see again after high school. Right now, these are just faces of people you’re used to staring at. In even the next month’s time, though, you never know when you may see that face again. Listen to your teacher. I know, what you’re learning this late in the game is pointless, but enjoy the fact that they’re sticking through it with you. They care a lot about you and want you to succeed, and by this time next year, you may be lucky to have a professor who cares to know your name. Every face you pass and every little thing you do, soak it in. This may seem stupid, but I wish I could go back and do this for myself.
It's now April 2016, and as a freshman in college, I'm wondering how in the heck I survived my first year. I have almost completed (and somehow passed) two semesters of college courses, joined a sorority, made lots of new friends, didn’t destroy any clothes when doing my own laundry, and never ended up in jail. All things to be proud of. Before college, I thought I had life down, but it took getting here and doing it to find out more about myself than I knew.
Although looking ahead, I am already excited for my classes next semester, living in the sorority house and taking on a year as an expert and not a newbie, there isn’t much time left to enjoy being "the baby." After this next month, I’ll never live in my dorm again. The bus will instead take me the opposite direction towards my sorority house and away from my current roommates and the place we call home. It’s all beginning to change, and the closer I get to my sophomore year, the closer I get to being an adult and out in the real world.
So while April is a long month of pushing through to the summer, each April is different from the last and the next. Wherever you are this April, enjoy the small moments, as they will become the long lost memories. Hug your friends because you can, stay up late with your roommates or your siblings because there aren’t many nights left to do so, work even harder in your classes than you did in September, and make every day a day you don’t want to forget. As soon as you know it, May will hit, and that’s it, another chapter closed.
So while your chapter is still open, fill the pages with color and don’t flip the page too fast or, as soon as you know it, it will be gone. Today will just be a page in a chapter that you’ll be rereading. It will be followed by the chapter of your wedding day, dropping your first child off at kindergarten, teaching your son how to drive, and then rereading these chapters to your grandkids. Make this April count, because while it may seem like just another Monday in class, every page of the book is important. Keep writing and creating new stories because there are no redos. Be careful in what you choose to create, because without knowing it, soon enough, your book will be closed.
