Dear Amy (high school senior version),

You’re prob­a­bly freak­ing out right now because you feel over­whelmed with every­thing that’s going on in your life at the moment. You’re wor­ried about acing those AP tests and finals, grad­u­at­ing with a strong GPA, and being able to bal­ance your numer­ous extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties. On top of all that, you’ll also have to deal with the fears that come with leav­ing the nest for the very first time. How­ever, not to fear! Those wor­ries are super­flu­ous, because every­thing will turn out to be more than okay.

Col­lege will be one of the best expe­ri­ences of your life. The jour­ney you will embark on will be enlight­en­ing, and at times, ardu­ous and frus­trat­ing. In fact, things won’t exactly go accord­ing to plan. How­ever, you will grow so much as a per­son. You’ll cul­ti­vate inde­pen­dence, learn so much about the world, and meet some amaz­ing peo­ple along the way.

At this point, you’re plan­ning on being a pre-med major and going to med school. Sorry to burst your bub­ble kid, but that’s not going to hap­pen. You’ll be a pre-med major for about two years and then have an exis­ten­tial break­down, which will prompt you to change majors. You’ll have to deal with the ini­tial stress of dis­ap­point­ing your par­ents and try­ing to find your pas­sion in life. How­ever, not to worry! Chang­ing majors was for the best. As a result, you will become much more ana­lyt­i­cal, socially con­scious, and meet some incred­i­bly dri­ven peo­ple who want to improve the world in which we live through direct polit­i­cal action.

It will take you a while, but you will even­tu­ally real­ize that going to col­lege will not nec­es­sar­ily pre­pare you for a spe­cific career or pro­fes­sion. That’s what trade schools or pro­fes­sional schools are for. Rather, col­lege is the time for explo­ration. The pur­pose of col­lege is to find out who you are and to find your pas­sion. It’s the time to explore your inter­ests fur­ther and to learn about sub­jects and pro­fes­sions you never thought would pique your inter­est. Sorry to sound cliché, but col­lege is the time to expand your horizons.

Last bit of advice: savor all of the lit­tle moments you have with the amaz­ing friends you meet, don’t stress too much, and have fun! Enjoy every minute of col­lege (good or bad) because it will be over before you know it.

Good luck kid,

Amy (the older and semi-wiser version)

Author: Amy Lee
High Schools: Col­lege Park High (Pleas­ant Hill, CA)
Col­leges: Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Davis
Now: Field Researcher, Health Care Divi­sion, Ser­vice Employ­ees Inter­na­tional Union (SEIU)

This let­ter was writ­ten as part of the Bet­ter­Grads spe­cial series: "Write a Let­ter to Your High School Self." Con­trib­u­tors are asked to answer ques­tions or con­cerns they may have had in high school, such as "What's the pur­pose of col­lege?" and "Is it worth it?" If you'd like to sub­mit a let­ter for pub­li­ca­tion, please read our edi­to­r­ial guide­lines and let us know here.