.
We are already worrying about school and social activities, about essays and tests and about balancing all of this with our jobs. Now my classmates and I, as seniors, also need to begin thinking about college.
Where do we want to go? What do we want to study? How will we pay for all of this?
We have parents on our backs, telling us to apply to 10 different schools and have it all done by tomorrow. We have daily reminders in the form of postcards from colleges, each one telling us “we want you” and “visit now.” We have our guidance counselors telling us every week to apply for more scholarships. When will it end?
Well, unfortunately, it will end all too soon. We will know where we will be going, what we will be doing and how we will be doing it. These decisions will mean parting with friends and moving on to unfamiliar places.
Fortunately, these changes also will mean making new friends and experiencing new places. It will be scary; it will be exciting. It will happen all too soon.
Now is the time to cherish what we will soon miss. Enjoy those basketball games, love our friends and family and even have fun in high school classes while we still can. Soon we will be graduating, and we will be moving on.
So parents, teachers, counselors — do not rush us. Experience these times with us, and enjoy life with us. Someday soon we will be gone, and you will miss us, just like we will miss you. Help us along with our decisions, but do not make them for us. In the end, we will choose what is right for us, and we know you will be supportive, just like you always are.
We know things will be changing. We know classes will be harder, work will be more necessary and everything will be more competitive. We know that now is the time to make the decisions that will affect the rest of our lives. Trust me, we know.
And here is what I know:
We should get those applications done, those visits over, those big decisions made. But we should not spend so much time looking toward the future that we forget to live in the present. The experiences we are having today will be the memories we will have tomorrow, when we are on to a new chapter in our lives.
Whatever we do, do not forget to make and enjoy those memories now.
Samantha Ladwig is a senior at Onalaska High School.
.
Advertisement 
