“Don’t be scared! These will be the best four years of your life!”
I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I was preached that very line before I started high school just four years ago (now I say “Just four years” then I said “I have four whole years”). Now that is probably the most true and most false statement I’ve ever heard. High school is the hell hole that you see in movies, but it’s also a giant building with hundreds of your closest friends.
When you ask high school alumni how their high school experience was they’ll either tell you how awesome it was or how they couldn’t wait to get out. I’m now a high school graduate and in a week i’ll be moving three hours away to another state for college, and i’ll tell you real quick that I could not wait until I walked across the stage to get my diploma. I took the whole “counting down the days” to another level. I woke up late every single day with just enough time to put on a touch of make-up (or none), put mousse in my hair, throw on a t-shirt, and grab a granola bar. Each day I dreaded the next even more with very little pushing me to try at all.
Now, could I have made my experience more positive and enjoyed it a little more? Probably. But that’s the worst part about high school… it’s all so fake. I wasn’t happy about being in a giant, white, cinder block building with people I didn’t particularly enjoy, so why should I act like it? Unfortunately it took me until my senior year to realize that faking it wasn’t worth it. People will be nice to your face, but they’ll talk behind your back. You might get cheated on by a boy you like, and your teacher might be too hard on you. You will have pressure on you to look the right way, and say the right thing. You’ll be pressured to do things you’ve never done, but now mom and dad aren’t there to say no.
They say high school is all about finding yourself, but I think it’s more about finding who you’re not. In high school you should go to parties, go to ball games, go lay in the middle of the road and look at the stars, take chances, and fall in love even when everyone says you’re too young. You WILL get in trouble and you WILL disappoint someone… So you might as well try new things and see what you like and what you don’t.
Even if you don’t like everyone you meet in high school, your class is something you’re a part of. Looking back now, it’s weird to think I won’t see certain people every day, even if I had never had a conversation with them. Take advantage of the simple sleepovers and lunch dates with your friends because soon it won’t be that easy. If you like someone, tell them. If they look pretty, tell them. Your time is too short to take away simple pleasures.
Growing up, we’re taught to say no to drugs, don’t drink until you’re 21, go to college, wait to have sex until you’re married, and that love is easy. High school teaches you reality. People all around you will drink and do drugs, some people won’t be cut out for college, people have sex with others who don’t even know their name, and sometimes, love is hard.
Despite everything, high school is an experience. It will come with both good and bad, but no matter what, time goes on and there are bigger, better things coming. Even though you feel like what you’re learning in class is pointless (because sometimes it is) high school is a reality check. Try new things, go out when you can, and make good grades.
Cheers to another experience