There are memories to be made and good friends to be made, but, most importantly, the time you spend in college is time spent building your future. It's worth the effort. I'm not saying that you have to have details in place, like where you want to go and what you want to study, but you should at least be thinking about whether or not college is in your future. If it is, start thinking about it now. Colleges look at your whole four years of high school.
Some people think that, once they get into college, they can slack off in their senior year.
You may be surprised to learn that colleges look at your senior year. One of my friends got accepted to her first choice college. It was where she wanted to go since her sophomore year. She was always talking about how good the school was and how much she wanted to play on their basketball team. When she got her acceptance letter, she went through the roof with excitement.