As summer days slide by, my fellow classmates and I draw inevitably closer to the decisions that we will soon be forced to make and the choices that will define our lives. In short, we are drawing near to not only our senior year, but the rest of our lives. The realization that everything about my life as I know it is about to change, has dawned on me steadily throughout my first month and a half of summer, beginning with the graduation of my senior friends. I watched them walk across the stage and accept their diplomas with a bittersweet feeling that is fairly new to me. It is a feeling that I am learning to associate with endings, and, therefore, beginnings.

Every ending is the beginning of something new, be it the changing seasons or the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly. It is easy to stay in the comfort of the known, but in order to grow, we need to be willing to risk heading into unfamiliar territories.

In approximately ten months, my classmates and I will be making the same, life-changing walk that my friends recently did, a walk that symbolizes our introduction into adulthood. It will be the end of the only way of life that we know, and the beginning of the legacy we hope to create. Between now and then, we will be forced to make decisions about college and life, decisions that are terrifying and exciting. Although the lasts may be painful, the anticipation of the firsts is exhilarating.