Last first day of high school. Last homecoming. Last Friday night football game. Last pep rally. Last musical. Last time to hear Mr. Matheson explain how Klein Collins rolls on Fridays.

Senior year, the first of many lasts.

I have looked forward to June 7 since August, constantly trying to overpower the itch of senioritis. But after spring break (my last high school spring break not to mention), a new feeling sank in. In addition to senioritis, I now have an uncomfortable amount of anxiety and inferiority pumping through my veins because of my obvious lack of readiness.

In the next five months, I will pack up my childhood bedroom and move into a dorm room with three girls I do not even know exist yet. Or, at least that is the plan. I am in no way ready.

See, while I was distracted “learning” (a.k.a. memorizing and regurgitating) senior year studies, I failed to realize that being accepted in to college is the easy part. That sacred acceptance letter unlocked doors all right, doors that uncontrollable amounts of stress came pouring out of. Instead of taking care of important matters like housing applications, Texas Success Initiative testing, math placement testing, New Student Conference registration, scholarship applications, learning how to finance properly and overall ensuring I was ready for my future, I have spent the year reviewing material I have been learning since I was a pig-tailed little girl at Kuehnle Elementary. Basically, I have spent nearly seven hours a day reviewing and I have memorized so much, a small portion of which I feel will be useful to me when I leave Klein Collins for the last time.

Aside from being academically unprepared, I have come to realize that I am fully unprepared personally to move to another city, do my own laundry, buy my own necessities and face whatever other trials and tribulations I am ignorant to at this point in time. During my late-night after-homework college application process sessions, I was able to reflect on my high school career. Four years ago, I would have laughed hysterically if someone told me I would be the current editor in chief of the school newspaper or that I would be planning on attending A&M after high school.

Lesson learned: things change. I change. People change. Situations change. Change is change and change is coming, someone really should have told me.

Little did I know that the good ol’ “senior year is so easy” phrase is nothing more than a lie force-fed down the throats of juniors looking forward to the last year before the best years of their lives. It is in no way easy, it is a rollercoaster of highs and lows. It is a constant uphill trek. It is the last chance to be all anyone ever plans to be in high school. It is a cliché. It is the beginning of an end, which will bring so many new beginnings.