I sent in my first college application a little over a month ago, and the next one a week later. An activity that most high school seniors consider arduous, filling out the online forms was a task that I found exciting and overwhelming—in a good way. Although I didn’t then (and still don’t) know what exactly my plans for my future post high school are, sending in those applications served as an official chip away at the granite block that will one day (hopefully) turn into the metaphorical sculpture masterpiece of my adult life.

I feel I’m ready to shed the shell of high school. I’m honestly ready to go.

I repeat this to my family and friends day after day, but then certain things happen. I go for a walk in my neighborhood and every other car that drives by is someone I know, sometimes a fellow senior. We stop and talk and I think of when I knew them in second grade. We say goodbye, then I realize there will never be another time in my life when the people we grew up with will be in the same place at the same time. This is it.

I remembered this when my lunch group of seniors made up a playlist of our favorite songs. I remembered this as I sat around the campfire at my best friend’s last Halloween celebration. I’ll remember it again—when an awesome friend helps me on physics homework (no matter how much help I need), when I hand out another school paper, when I am sitting around my friend’s kitchen table doing homework with afternoon light slanting in perfectly.

I don’t love high school most of the time. I am more than ready for limited bathroom breaks, sticky lockers, and 8:17 mornings to be behind me. These three-and-counting years have both raced and trudged by, and the prospect of college makes my toes tingle with excitement. We seniors are on the cusp of new and big things. We’re almost halfway through the school year, but for now I’m still a senior.

It’s not so bad, to be honest.