I know most of you, if not all of you, have been counting down the days, waiting for that day where you walk out the doors of your high school forever and take the next big step in your future. You have kept a running countdown to spring break since Christmastime, knowing that once spring break has happened you will be heading into the home stretch.
As much as you want to escape and discover the adult world and the freedoms associated with it, don’t wish away the little time you have left. Sure, high school can be a frustrating, drama-filled, complicated environment, but as much as you don’t realize now, you will miss it.
In a few short months, you will graduate and walk across the stage to get your diploma. A few months after that your summer vacation will come to a close and you will begin the process of shopping and decorating the dorm room that will be your home away from home for a decent portion of the next year. And you and your classmates will be off in various different directions, heading off to whichever institution you have pledged your commitment to.
It may not seem like that big of a deal, but I will put it in perspective for you. Friends that you have spent every day with for the past four years, possibly longer depending on the size of your town/school, will be moving on, as will you. You will not see each other every waking moment of the day. You will not be in contact as often as you once were, you both will be starting a new chapter of your life, in a new place with new people. Your closest friends now may not be your closest friends by the end of your first year of college, maybe even not by the end of the first semester.
I don’t say this to scare you, I just want to tell you like it is; I’m speaking from experience. Right now you are seniors, the big men on campus, slowly checking out on whatever classwork you have left to do, awaiting prom and the various end of year festivities that come with being a senior. You will go off to your college orientation programs, and all of a sudden you will go from being the big man on campus where everyone knows your name and you know most of the people around you to just one of many individuals lumped into one category—freshmen, once again.
Sure, college is an exciting prospect—freedom to do what you want, whenever you want, nobody nagging you about getting your homework done, cleaning your room or doing other chores. For those of you who didn’t have the greatest high school experiences, it’s a fresh start, a chance to do things differently. For those of you who were in popular crowd or high on the social ladder, it is a chance to continue that lifestyle or try something new. It is a chance for you to define who you are for an audience that doesn’t know your embarrassing secrets or rumors that were spread about you.
This chance isn’t as easy as it may appear to you, it is a big adjustment. You may struggle with the time management aspect because your life lacks the structure and routine that you had over the course of high school. You may get lost on campus because the school you’re attending may be significantly larger than what you were used to. You may oversleep class because you are your own wake-up call, no longer having your parents to call upstairs if you accidently oversleep one of the six alarms you had set to wake up each and every morning for four years. There are no excuses, from the moment you graduate high school you have more control in your future. Sure you may still be a teenager, but people no longer see you as a child, you will be treated like an adult. You will need to mature quickly or struggle along.
If any of this scared you, I apologize, that was not my intention, but I don’t want to sugar coat it. All of us count down until summer at one point or another, but when you are a senior, there is a sense of finality in that countdown. If I want you to learn anything from reading this article this is it; make the most of the time you have left while you still have it. Enjoy the time spent with your friends, make memories, and take photos to make them last. Do your school work, there’s no reason to risk failing a class with the finish line in sight and it will make the days pass by quicker rather than getting lazy and having them drag on. Go to as many special events as you can, it’s one of the perks of getting to this point. Enjoy the time you spend with your friends and family—depending on how far away your school is from home you may not see or be in contact with them that often. And most of all, be excited for the future, be proud of what you’ve accomplished and embrace the unknown that lies ahead.
Congratulations, you’ve made it! Almost.
