For some, this is the highly-anticipated culmination of four years of rigorous work, all-nighters, and innumerable color-coded study sheets; for others, it is the end of an era, the last hoorah before the separating from their friends forever. Some are unappreciative, others are cherishing every last second. No matter the perspective, the concept is the same: senior year is upon us, class of 2015, and this is it.

The stresses of senior year are impossible to convey until you are actually faced with the grim reality that is the future. The relentless barrage of college applications, essays, and the inevitable, if dreaded, where-are-you-going-to-school questions are enough to send most of us over the edge. For many of us, as well, we lost friends with the graduation of the last senior class. It’s a tough adjustment from the rigor of junior year to the incomparable insanity of senior year.

But despite that – or, perhaps, because of it – we must embrace senior year in its entirety. This is the year, our year, and we have to take it by the horns and enjoy it while it lasts. Because this is the last for everything, for us, before we leave. Underclassmen may not understand it now, and some seniors might not even comprehend it quite yet. After we walk across that stage and are handed our diplomas, and flip our tassels and toss our caps, we are finished here. Our legacy is solidified; our futures are all that matters. We are finished here, never again to return as the same exact person we are in that single, unbreakable moment.

Senior year is difficult. People seem to be incapable of speaking to you about anything but college applications and college essays and just college, the whole big terrifying idea of it. We are supposed to map out our entire futures at the fragile age of seventeen or eighteen. And that is why we have to embrace this last chance  to be young, free, innocent, wild, carefree. It is the last time we will all be together, for better or for worse. Maybe it’s a cliché, and maybe it seems silly, but life doesn’t stop for anybody. So, class of 2015, let’s at least enjoy it while it’s speeding by us.