I'm sure that many people would agree that at least once in their life someone has told them that they wish they could be in high school again. Chances are that this person was most likely going through a mid life crisis. But let's be real, it's happened. So as a recent graduate, can I actually predict if in 30 years I'll say the same thing? Eh, maybe, but probably not.
Let's be real again. I can't tell you how many people took "Senioritis" to the next level, myself included. You would probably think that high school was the worst experience in our lives, but honestly I think that it was probably the best experience in our lives.
Let's be unreal. Imagine a world without high school. A world where education ends in 8th grade when most people are 13 or 14 years old. Imagine everything that we would miss. We would miss growing up with our friends and watching them grow with us as human beings. Personally, I think that that was the most valuable thing that high school taught me. When you're shoved in a building with well over 1,000 students, you get to know some of them pretty well. But what you get to know better is that people change. Yes, believe it or not this thing happens. The best friend that you grew up with since you were 6 years old is now 16 and your worst enemy. Or on drugs. Or moved away. And when people change we tend to grow apart. But when our hearts take charge and tell ourselves that we don't want to grow apart, strange things happen. We either see that person make an effort or they move on. The latter is the one that seems to happen the most. And trust me that has happened to me more than a few times.
I was once best friends with a kid since 4th grade when he first moved to my elementary school. I was one of his first friends at the school and I absolutely loved the guy. He was a lot bigger than me so I also thought he was a pretty good guy to have on my side in case of those jacked playground bullies. Anyway, literally every year after 4th grade he would tell me that his house was for sale again and that he was moving the following summer. So for the first few years that was believable and I made the most of my time with him. However, when he continued to tell the rest of our friends and I into Jr. High, we stopped believing him. Finally, when we were in 9th grade, it was the usual toward the end of the year. This time though he was swearing that this was definitely his last year. But he was still picking classes for the following year, so none of us believed him yet again and even though our goodbyes at the end of the year were a little more bittersweet than usual, we still told him that we would see him next year. It wasn't until the first day of 10th grade that we realized that he was actually gone. It was really sad! We couldn't believe he wasn't lying. I texted him a few times after that to see how he was doing and he told me that he had moved to Philadelphia (where he was telling us he was moving ever since 4th grade) and that he absolutely loved it. He was never a guy for texting often and each time I would be the one to initiate the texts. The last time I ever texted him, I told him that we all missed him, but he never said anything about missing us in return, which kind of made me a little mad. We had been friends for 6 years and he kind of just blew it off like it was nothing. We had had a lot of great times together. Most of my memories in Jr. High were with him. But after that we never talked to this day. Time went on and although I was upset about losing one of my best friends to distance, I moved on.
Whew, that was a little depressing. So, with the end of high school I've learned that communication is the only thing we can do and that we can only do what's in our power. Friendship is a two way street and if it's only traveling one way, there's no return. So call me a creeper, but seeing people change into who they are today was honestly my favorite thing about high school; whether that be the nerd who's now on drugs or the popular girl who now is ridiculed for playing tuba in the marching band.
So then I take a step back and say to myself, "Am I happy with who I was in high school ?". Most importantly, am I happy with who I am now going into the next phase of my life? I think I am. Are there things that I would change about my high school career? Yes, absolutely. But do I regret who I was? No, not at all. Looking at the present, I have some of the best friends in the world. They make me laugh, make me angry, make me want to better myself, and most importantly make me understand the true meaning of what it means to be a friend. I feel for my friends. When they're sad, I'm sad for them. When they're happy, I'm happy for them. It's an incredible chain reaction. Never in my freshman year did I think I would be friends with who I am now. And I think a lot of people can say that. And I'm happy with how that turned out. So I don't want to go back to high school. I don't have to relive those times, because I'll be busy making new memories with them and cherishing the old ones.
So what did I learn in high school? I learned that people change with the times and that although it hurts, the person we planned sitting next to in a rocking chair wrecking havoc in the nursing home may not be our best friend anymore. But I learned what true friendship takes to succeed. And that's the best thing I could've ever learned in high school.
"Hope that you spend your days, but they all add up."-OneRepublic, "I Lived"
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