HAFTA/ WANNA

I feel that nothing after high school will change as suddenly and drastically as we have been led to believe. For myself and some friends of mine, responsibilities will not be a completely new thing. A lot of us already have jobs, own cars, and pay for some of our own expenses like car insurance and phone bills. Just like how you are no different on January 1st compared to December 31st, no one will wake up June 7th feeling like a whole new person. For a lot of my friends and I, life will stay somewhat the same as we spend our last summer together in our hometown before leaving, or possibly staying, to college in the fall.
I think what will bring one of the most dramatic changes after high school is finally setting off to live by ourselves; whether it be in an apartment or on-campus housing. That's when I feel like we will truly be "adults." Though obviously we can't do whatever we want, not living under our parents' roof anymore will bring all new kinds of freedom. I feel that that freedom will either make us or break us. In college we could skip class every day, spend zero time studying, and party into the early morning every chance we get and almost no one would know.
This year I have really struggled to have the motivation to complete all of my homework every night. I mean I already got into a couple colleges, as far as I'm concerned I could just keep my grades to a C- or above and not seriously mess up in any way and still be attending college next fall. What does stop me from failing to do anything at all is mostly my awareness that the major I'm going into (civil engineering) is actually going to be pretty tough and that it might actually help knowing some stuff from the Physics and Calculus classes I'm taking this year. And on top of that, not having to pay for certain courses if I manage to pass the three AP tests I'm taking would be nice as well...
My hopes are that in college I am able to find a happy medium of getting my work done, while also exploring what else that it is I want to do in life besides working, and making some good memories with good friends along the way.