What Collegiettes Miss Most About High School

 

College apps. AP classes. Life decisions. Can’t a pre-collegiette catch a break!? This is supposed to be (and still can be!) the best time of your life, but instead, you’re feeling stressed. 

 

We feel your pain. Whether you’ve recently been missing chick flick nights with your friends to go college road tripping on weekends or you’ve been struggling to find twenty unique ways to say, “I’m special” in your college essay, you’ve probably had it up to here with senior year. It’s normal to be itching to grab your diploma and start decorating your dorm room (no shame in already having your color scheme picked out). But spending all of your time looking ahead to your collegiette years could cause you to miss out on all of the perks of the pre-collegiette life!

 

To help you stop and smell the roses – and more importantly, the home-cooked meals – we’ve drawn up a list of what real collegiette miss most about high school. Maybe it’s the lack of term papers, maybe it’s the fresh comfort food, or maybe it’s the red carpet-ready feeling you get when you primp up for prom. Whatever it is, it’s making us collegiettes jealous of you! So live it up!

 

 

We all know how it goes: “Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold.” Sure, we learned the song in pre-school, but like so many other things (dress up, nap time, the wonders of chocolate milk), the words aren’t any less important to us today.

 

So, what makes high school friends so golden? Camilla States, a sophomore at College of Charleston, says, “Going though so many life experiences together and moving through school grades as a class brought [my group and I] together as classmates and friends.” Like Camilla’s friends, your partners in crime have likely known you for years and have stuck by you through everything (including drama and awkward stages… yikes!), which means they’re awesome friends!

 

By this point, you’ve probably all racked up enough inside jokes to fill several books, and the number of unforgettable moments you’ve shared (be it birthday celebrations, juicy gossip seshes about boys, or even just ritual trips to the local hangout for iced coffee) will only keep growing throughout the rest of the year. The fact that you get to see each other during classes and chat during lunch every day means that you’ve got that much more time to make some memories.

 

The best part? It isn’t over! Camilla explains, “The great thing is that these bonds don’t end at college, and I still keep in touch with all of my close pals during breaks and visits.”

 

Moral of the story: Even though you’ll make awesome new friends in college, there’s nothing like an old friend to hear you out post-hook-up (yay you!), post-break-up, or after an awkwardly loud passage of gas.

 

 

 

Now that you’re ready to cherish every inside joke, crazy adventure, and deliciously juicy gossip sesh you and your high school friends share, you’re ready for the next step: cherishing the ritual of sleepovers. Lots of them.

 

Leila Serino, a junior at Boston University, says that sleepovers are at the top of her high school-envy list. Leah Wolff, a junior at Skidmore College, agrees. “Movies, junk food, gossiping from beds lined up in a room… I miss that so much.”

 

The best part about high school sleepovers is that they have all the excitement and novelty of camping (a sleeping bag is technically “roughing it,” right?) with all of the creature comforts of your parents’ house: heat, space for spreading out, pay-per-view rom-coms, and the mandatory bowl of popcorn and roll of cookie dough. Unlike a college dorm, your parent’s basement, living room, or even your own bedroom has space to fit you and all of your friends, which means there’s no shortage of hands when it comes time for manicure trains (and no shortage of gossip to make for some classic dusk-til-dawn chit-chat).

 

Seize the slumber party moment!

 

 

If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: never take for granted the daily snuggle-fest that comes with having a pet! Emery Matson, a junior at Skidmore College, explains that while she was in high school, she and her dog slept together every night. “He is just my best friend,” she says.

 

Whether it’s a fluffy bedmate or a parrot that talks to you while you eat breakfast, your pet is just another perk of the high school home life. And who doesn’t love unconditional love? Take advantage of your pet’s proximity every time you feel the urge to cuddle or baby talk (he or she won’t judge you, and neither will we).

 

 

Speaking of the comforts of life at home, let’s not forget the beauty of the bubble bath. Explanation required? We didn’t think so.

 

 

 

We know you’re probably thinking, “High school boys!? What about college boys?” Don’t take us the wrong way: we love to love college boys, and college boys love to love us. (Hello, Campus Cuties!) It’s a win-win situation. Get psyched.

 

On the other hand, like we said earlier, it’s important to stop and smell the roses (or the excessive amount of Axe cologne), and this means appreciating high school boys while you’re still in high school. First crushes, first kisses, first loves… soak up the excitement!

 

Though it’s not a hard-and-fast rule, high school relationships can often be more clear-cut than college ones, largely because high schools tend to have less of a casual hook-up scene. In high school, it’s usually easier to go on one-on-one or double dates than it is to go to a huge, packed party, so you’re likely getting quality time with your guy during and after school. Besides, it’s not like your dates only entail pizza and a movie: if you’ve got a special boy in your life, you can count on all of the roses and romance of nights like prom (the kind of nights that make you feel like you and your arm candy are the paparazzo’s new favorite “It” couple).

 

If you don’t believe us, just look at T-Swift and her recent Kiss List: 18-year-olds Conor Kennedy and (maybe?) Harry Styles. High school boys can be diamonds in the rough! Plus, you never know; your high school sweetheart might turn out to be the love of your life!

 

 

Don’t get us wrong; you’ll have amazing professors in college, no matter where you end up (so let the stressing stop here!). You’ll have the flexibility to choose classes that really interest you, which means you’ll meet professors who are able to teach you whatever it is that you want to learn. #winning.

 

What’s cool about high school classes, however, is the fact that they give you an even better chance of getting to know your teachers. As Mary Bryce Hargis, a junior at  University of Southern California, points out, the best thing about high school teachers is the amount of time that you get to spend with them. “I miss being able to see a lot of my teachers from freshman year through junior year every day,” she says. “I felt like I really was able to build on my connections with them during senior year.”

 

What’s more, the class sizes you find in high school are almost always smaller than those you find on college campuses, where you’re likely to take at least a few lecture courses. Collegiettes all have the chance to get to know their professors, but it requires a bit more effort. The one-on-one relationship you can build over the years – or even just the year – with a high school teacher gives you all the benefits of a mentor who knows your work ethic, your interests, your writing, or your stellar math skills inside and out and has watched them develop over time. Think Harry Potter and Professor McGonagall, The School of Rock kids and Dewey Finn, or even the X-Men and Charles Xavier.

 

 

The #1 most missed perk of pre-collegiette life, hands down, is the beauty of the home-cooked meal. Nothing beats Mom’s secret recipe. Nothing.

 

There’s no question that you’ll love being a collegiette (freedom! maturity! Anything-But-Clothes parties!), but before you crash the campus, there’s still plenty of time left to make the most of your pre-collegiette life. Enjoy the locker-lined hallways of your high school while you can; before you know it, you’ll be missing them!