To the High School Graduating Senior

It seems like forever ago and a whole different world away when I was in your shoes. A high school senior scared and anxious to start the process of saying goodbye to the last four years of my life. Senior year is filled with endless lasts. The last first day of class, the last Halloween with your friends, the last football game, the last Friday night party, the last school dance, the last time you go to school with all your friends and the last time you will live close to all your best friends. These lasts are followed by the endless goodbyes come the end of summer. The first friend leaves in the middle of August while the rest of your friends watch while they pile their whole life into a car and drive off. While these goodbyes and lasts may seem like the worst thing in the world and your friendships may never be the same, I assure you that there is much more to life than the four years you spend in high school. I am not saying that those years are wasted. They are the years that you spend trying to piece together an inkling of you who are and who you want to be. But the four years in college do not define who you are who you are going to be.

I remember all of my lasts and goodbyes in high school and thinking  I could never find people who will understand me like my best friends in high school do. However, after I began to let go of the idea that I needed to find the exact people I was friends with in high school, I began to accept that my college friends would be different than the ones I had back home and that was how it is supposed to be. I learned a lot more about who I am and who I want to be in college and you will too. You will be challenged and face a multitude of circumstances that test who you are, but in the end, it will make you a better person.

My advice to you is relax. Everything will work out the way it is supposed to. The true friendships from home will remain the same and strong, and you will always have them to lean on. Enjoy the last month of lasts and the last month of your senior year. Look forward to the adventure that you are about to begin because, from experience, it has been the best years of my life.