Dear Nikki,

As classes are now over, I feel like I’m supposed to be happy. But I am just so confused and sad that my first year at college is already done. Over the summer, I’m going to miss all of my friends and can’t believe just how quickly my first year here has gone by. Is it wrong to feel so down right now?

—Forlorn Freshman

Dear Forlorn Freshman,

First off, no—it is not wrong to feel so down, especially since May in Cambridge is eerily reminiscent of February in Siberia. The fast passage of time can be scary, and it always seems like spring semester races by. I took a year off before college and still couldn’t believe that I was already done with my freshman year when it happened.

I still remember dancing to “My milkshakes brings all the boys to the yard” with my roommate in Stoughton last spring—sad both that it was the end of the year and that there were no boys coming to the yard except for the Harvard freshmen.

I think the best thing for you to do is to simply accept it. Transition is definitely tough, but important. And the more that you acknowledge that the year has passed and you are moving on to new things, the better.

I mean, just think about all of things that you’ll miss from your freshman year: being part of a large mass walk to the Quad because there are no parties in freshman dorms, being around people suffering from the “I’m away from home for the first time so I’ll behave like I’ve just gotten out of prison” syndrome, and the noble and foolish desire to get straight As in all of your classes. It all fades faster than the lessons of Expos class.

Joking aside, the novelty of freshman year is something unique and special, but sophomore year will be great too—just make sure you lose the freshman 15 before the onset of your sophomore slump…

I promise it only gets better from here. Next year you don’t have to start from scratch. You’ll already be “in the groove” at Harvard and everything that you enjoyed and loved from this year will not be instantaneously lost with the onset of summer.

You should be happy that you had such a good year that you would be feeling so nostalgic already…

Freshman year is a unique experience that will never again repeated. Only once will you be that awkward and insecure. Unless you remake Groundhog Day and set it in your freshman year. That’d be amusing.

Sincerely,

Nikki: “Bring it on, junior year.”

—“Dear Nikki” runs on Mondays. Send letters to DearNikki@thecrimson.com.Letters will be published anonymously.