Well, another year is about to come to a close. Everyone says college flies by but I had no idea how true that statement was until now, when I'm facing my senior year. These last few years have been, by far, the quickest ones of my life. That being said, it's important to savor every second you have in college before facing the real world. This advice is especially important to college freshmen — the more I think about it, the more I come to realize that this was a severely underrated year of school for me.

A large majority of people live on campus their freshman year of college and to a lot of people, this is a huge drag. But now that I'm living in an apartment completely independent of the school, I can safely say that despite the annoying rules imposed by on-campus housing, I kind of miss it. Everything was so convenient. Nowadays, if I want to go to the gym or need to go to a meeting on campus, I have to set aside a pretty big amount of time to account for driving over and finding parking (which is a huge hassle). Even going to class was much easier when I lived on campus. I could wake up 15 minutes before class started and still be right on time when I lived on campus —today, I woke up a full hour before my class started. Yeah, having my own bathroom and a certain degree of freedom is a nice part of being off campus, but if you're a freshman living in a dorm, don't take your proximity to all the goings-on at school for granted.

I was also one of the freshmen who got suckered into buying a meal plan when I saw them pull out all the stops on Preview Weekend. Obviously the food on campus isn't as good as it is when they're trying to impress your parents. But when you grow out of your meal plan contract, you're not going to eat out every single night--you're going to have to hone in on your cooking skills. While there are definitely some days when the dining hall food leaves a lot to be desired, you'll come to miss it when you burn your only dinner or have nothing but cheese and lettuce in the fridge. Being able to eat at any time that's convenient to you (and as much as you want) is a huge perk. When I'm on my way to the bus stop after being on campus for seven hours without food, that dining hall becomes pretty attractive and I wish that I could go back to the days when I could eat as much as I wanted whenever I wanted.

Another thing I miss a ton about freshman year is how new everything was. I know it's lame and sappy to say, but you had your whole college experience ahead of you as a freshman. You could make mistakes. You could miss out on certain things. You had three years to make up for it. On the flip side of that, the novelty of everything meant that you probably didn't miss much anyway. For a lot of people, freshman year is the first time being on your own — I still remember how happy I was to be hanging out at 1 a.m. and not having to hurry back to make curfew. I don't pay any attention to stuff like that anymore. The excitement is gone.

But the thing I undoubtedly miss most about freshman year is the friendships I made. Nobody was so far into the Greek system that they were letter-exclusive. Nobody was really heavily involved in any clubs or other organizations. Everyone was on the same playing field — we were all freshmen who had no idea how anything worked; we just wanted to have a good time. Now I'm not saying people can't be friends with people outside of their organizations, but it's a lot harder to maintain friendships when everyone has gone off in their own direction. Back in freshman year, nobody had any obligations other than to have as much fun as possible and do well enough in the easiest classes of their college careers. It was just a great time.

I'm excited to become a senior and you reading this should be excited to start the next chapter of your life as well. But now that it's all coming to a close, it's more important than ever to remember not to rush through anything. When I was getting busted for contraband in my dorm or keeling over after a bad dining hall meal, I didn't think I would ever miss my freshman year. But now I would do anything to go back.