Here's my message to all those seniors (and juniors) who may be biting their teeth down to the quick at the thought of college:  It's really not that big a deal.  The work, in my case, seems to be fairly easy so far... that, of course, will depend on what college you choose, but I think it's fair to say that those of you wearing diapers when fretting about the workload can get back into your usual skivvies and simmer down a bit.  For me, the real drawbacks to college aren't really work-related; they're living related.
    When you hear the terms living halls, dorms, and residence halls, what do you think of?  Personally, I think of the projects.  Entering my residence hall is like entering some freaky kind of Florida condo from hell.  People are passed out (from one thing or another) in the halls, people are playing loud, lousy music with their doors open. At least once a week I have to tell one of my neighbors to quiet down, and WORST of all, there's only one toilet in my hallway.  You haven't lived intil you've really needed to use the bathroom only to find that someone has already filled that ever-elusive, heavenly spot on the porcelain throne.  Every time I feel the urge to go, I'm scared.
    Oddly, though, part of it has grown on me.  Not necessarily my neighbors, or that pungent smoky smell in the hallways, but my room itself.  Increasingly, as the semester slugged along at the pace of a one-legged man running a marathon through a swamp, my room became a welcome site at the end of the day.  The dusty computer, the ancient television... well, they started to become charming in their own little way.  I still could go without the noise from the other rooms, or the stiffness of the bed... but it's growing on me, bit by bit.  Maybe because getting used to it is really my only choice.
    But it's still not like high school.
    Many of you are probably looking forward to college, and granted, there are good reasons for that-- you can adjust the schedule to your needs, there are no parents around to tell you what to do at all times-- but there was something about high school, some quality it had that college can't quite re-create.  College is the first taste of the real world, the first time you realize just what might await you over the horizon.  But, in tasting that real world, you lose some of the innocence that comes gift-packaged with youth.  And, looking back, I think that's probably one of the main reasons I miss Lewiston High School: in many ways, those four years were the last of my innocence.
    Maybe in a couple of years, when I more fully adjust to college, some aspects of high school will seem childish to me... but not likely.  I think there will always be some part of me that will miss red hall passes, boring study halls, Spirit Week, bad cafeteria food, Ace passes and pep rallies.  For those four crucial years I spent growing up, those were the things that helped define who I am today.
    The farewell that I bid to Lewiston High School is a fond one.  As I look toward the future, I vow never to forget the past... and my message is this: enjoy your high school years while you can.  Enjoy your innocence.  College may be the red carpet to the future, but high school is the journey that will get you to where you want to go.  And as the old (and sadly, cliché) adage goes: it's not the destination, it's the journey.
Amen to that.