Congratulations! You have made it through the treacherous four years we call high school. After all the early mornings, late nights and after school activities, you are finally on to bigger and better things. Whether you are off to college, the workforce, or to another another prospective plan, good things are coming. As I am writing this, I am about to finish my freshman year at the University of Michigan. As I think back to the person I was just a short year ago — a timid, confused new student — I reflect on what I have learned, as well as what advice my present self would say to my past-self entering college. With this, graduating seniors, I will dispense advice as someone who was just recently in your shoes, but also as someone who has changed and grown so much in just one year.
1. Don’t stress the small stuff
As you are finishing up your senior year, it is easy to become overwhelmed with upcoming plans, decisions and choices about your future. I’m going to be blunt with you — the future is scary. But after a year of change, I can assure you it all works out. So enjoy the ride, don’t stress too much.
2. Keep your friendships strong
While you’re bound to make many new friends wherever next year takes you, it is still so important to maintain your high school friendships. Your high school friends have been there for you in the past and will be there for you in the future. No matter how much you change after high school, you will always have your old friends to come back to. So, make sure you leave high school with close friends to keep as you grow up.
3. Spend time with your family
After living in your house for 18 years, it is easy to grow annoyed or frustrated at your family. However, soon enough, you will be on your own, in a dorm room, without home-cooked meals and your mom to do your laundry. So take these final months to cherish your family and do not take for granted their unconditional love, stocked fridge, and remedies for when you have a cold.
4. Enjoy the ride!
You may be anxious to get out of high school and move on to bigger and better things, but make sure to take time to appreciate the good times of the past four years and end it on a high note. Now that you are a second-semester senior there are only good things to come such as prom, graduation and your final, homework-free days of school. There is so much time for the future, for now treasure the ending of a great chapter of your life.
Photo courtesy of KIX 106 FM.