Dear High School Senior

My senior year of high school was insane. From the high energy football games and pep rallies to counting down the days until graduation, I loved my senior year from start to finish. Don’t get me wrong, despite all the fun I had, I felt like “senioritis” couldn’t have hit me any harder. It was weird because I was having so much fun, yet all I could think about was leaving for college. After the excitement of college acceptances (along with a couple of denials), I finally had my decision and was ready to leave my high school days behind me. College is just as fun as it sounds, but here are 5 things I didn’t think I would miss until now. 

1. Study guides 

I don’t know if it was just my high school, but I feel like I got a study guide for every test. Study guides helped me focus on what was important to study and what was not important to read in that massive biology textbook. In college, we don’t get study guides. At least for me, my study guide was that massive biology textbook with no guidelines of what to read and what not to read. Saying I miss high school study guides would be an understatement. 

2. High School Dances

As much as these stressed me out, I am always going through old pictures from past dances and re-thinking my hair and outfit choices. I miss the excitement of being asked to homecoming and the butterflies in my stomach before asking a boy to Winter Formal. I never thought that I would say this, but I miss the millions of pictures that my mom and dad insisted upon taking. The memories of these dances bring me back to where I am happiest – with all my best friends on a dance floor, singing our hearts out to some poorly remixed Rhianna. 

3. Plaid Skirts 

I know this won’t apply to everyone, but I wore a uniform in high school. I couldn’t wait to go to college and wear whatever I wanted. I was ready to dress to impress. I told myself I would dress cute every day to my 8 am classes, but I quickly learned that it would only last a week. Most of the time, I go to class in sweatpants. It’s too much effort to pick out an outfit at 7:30 in the morning. I miss knowing what I had to wear every day. I hated it at the moment but looking back at it, it was so convenient. 

4. Ice Cubes 

This is a silly one, but I am a huge ice girl. I don’t really like drinking water if there isn’t ice in it. An ice cube tray is a lot of maintenance. I miss having ice available at the ready out of a machine whenever I wanted. My mom laughs at me when I go home and the first thing I do is fill my water bottle with ice. 

5. Family Dinners 

Every teenager’s worst nightmare … family dinner. Time without a phone solely reserved for spending an hour or so talking with your family. I miss these nights. Until you don’t get the opportunity to sit and eat dinner with your family at the end of a long day, you don’t realize how important it is to appreciate things like that. Mindless conversations about everyone’s day and laughing until my stomach hurts after my little brother makes fun of me for spilling is something I will always miss at the end of the day. 

All of these things are minuscule. I didn’t list the obvious things I miss family, friends, pets, and even my bed because those are a given. I wanted to tell you, a high school senior, to appreciate the little things. I was once in your shoes where someone older was telling me that time will go by in the blink of an eye and it’s not until now, looking back at my high school memories, that I realized how true that is. As paralyzing as the excitement of college is, take time to appreciate the little things that will be left behind when you are getting your diploma on graduation day. You will one day be looking back on all the little things, wishing you could travel back in time.

• high school
• senior year