With the school year coming to an end, many juniors, such as myself, are beginning to realize that senior year is actually going to happen and this is real. Realizing that this time next year we will be figuring out who we will be rooming with in college, where we will even be going for college, and how we’re even going to grow up enough in order to live by ourselves. It’s a very stressful thing.

The thought of growing up is appealing to many, but let’s be real – having to decide where you’re going to get an education, how to pay for it, getting a job, your own apartment, and even having to go grocery shopping by yourself is scary. I mean, come on people –  your mom leaves you in the grocery store line because she forgot to grab peanut butter and you pray that she gets back before the cashier starts to check you out because you don’t know what to do without her there. Yet life is here, throwing you in the deep end, to make you buy groceries by yourself and just walking away.

Even though it seems really scary, stressful, and takes a lot of trial and error, growing up can be a pretty cool thing. Everyone says that high school is “the best years of your life” and yeah, sometimes high school is great, but how can they be the best years if there are so many more to come? In high school, you’re able to find what you enjoy doing and form your own friend group. You get your license, a car, a little job, and you’re able to go out just you and your friends for the first time and make so many great memories.

College seems to basically be high school on steroids. It is always perceived to be a crazy intense, always working, never going to be able to sleep experience. Maybe the rumors are right, but college is your time to shine. You start going to school for something you’re interested in, you’re going because you want to and not because you are being forced to, and sometimes professors don’t want to show up to their own class and boom, your 8 a.m is cancelled. Aside from all the schooling, you’re also able to learn how to become independent, grow as an individual, and you are able to create more relationships that will last a lifetime.

But of course, with all of those cool things come responsibilities, like having to buy groceries by yourself. You begin to live on your own, or with roommates, and you have to do your own laundry, clean your own room, and cook your own meals. This is when, if you haven’t learned this by now, ramen noodles are a human’s best friend. Even though all these things seem overwhelming and you seem like you won’t be able to balance a social life, a job, an education, and all your responsibilities, you can and you will.

Sometimes you really just have to wing life. You just have to take things day by day, and sometimes you won’t be able to do everything you want to do that days, an that is okay. Sometimes things won’t work out, and you will get overwhelmed and someday you’re just going to have to Febreeze the shirt you wore yesterday and start all over. That’s the great thing about life. When your responsibilities get out of hand and life just seems to crumble, you can go to sleep and have a fresh start the next morning.

Even though growing up freaks some people out, there are a lot of great things that come from it. There’s no need to worry about things that are ultimately always going to happen, like growing up. So take life one day at a time, and just live your life. Enjoy the moments you have now, because soon you’ll look back and realize these were the golden days.