After graduating high school I thought life couldn't get any better. Then I had a taste of college life, and boy, was I wrong. Looking back on my life in high school, there are quite a few things that I will never miss.

1. The Overpriced Lunches

Okay, so looking back the lunches were pretty cheap. However, for what was given, there was no way in hell I would ever pay 3-5 dollars a day for the piece of crap laying on the trays that literally tasted like cardboard. CARDBOARD. As a matter of fact, I did not pay a cent for those gross lunches. Before you ask, yes, I was one of those weird individuals that brought their lunch to high school every day. And yes, I did rock my Hello Kitty Lunch Box. Be jealous.

Oh yes, the lovely dress code. The world of high school where boys could wear their awful muscle tees that most likely showed their whole body were “not allowed” in school but got away with it anyways. But if a girls’ shorts were just under their fingers they were deemed, “inappropriate” and had the potential to get sent home for the day. Because we do, in fact, live in a world where dress code is more important than an education. Especially when the heaters in school only worked in the warm months and the a/c was on in below freezing temperatures in the winter. So dress for the weather in the building, kids.

3. Accelerated Reading

Sweet baby Jesus. The only thing in the world that made me learn to hate reading while in high school. The pressure of getting enough points for the 9 weeks was stressful because you literally had to plan out how many books that would have to read in that amount of time if they were each x amount of points and how many pages the books were. So here we are doing math for English!! I HATE MATH. Let’s not forget the questions in the test that had to be taken to get the points. “In the scene in the living room, the curtains were red. Why?” Um. I don’t know. They were red because the author chose to make them red? WRONG. Oh, how lovely. The correct answer was because the author wanted to signify all of the hatred the main character had five years ago when her mom wouldn’t let her have that last piece of cake before bed. Seems legit.

4. Standardized Testing

"Yay! standardized testing!" said nobody ever. The bane of my existence and the reason I thought I wouldn’t get my diploma even though I had a 4.0 gpa. Thanks, testing anxiety. Literally no one understands the reasons why standardized testing is a thing, even the teachers. It was actually sad because teachers would be so frustrated that they had to teach us, the students, whatever the government thought was appropriate to learn rather than what they knew was important for us to learn for college and the real world. And let me tell you, the teachers are right. I thank God every day because of what my teachers taught me. Even though they did have to teach subjects that were mandatory to be learned by students, there were also days that teachers taught all that we would need to know for college as well, which in turn would prepare us for the real world. For instance, to pass PSSA’s (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment) we needed to write a simple five paragraph essay. But that was not enough for my English teacher. She made sure that we knew how to write actual papers, taught us how to write in different formats, and graded us how a college professor would. Same for my AP European History class; that teacher also made sure we were well prepared for tests, essays, and grading systems that would differ in college. I will never be able to thank the two of them enough, and I am sure other students feel the same way. So thank you.

Also, I'm not even going to get started on how we give individuals with different minds the same exact tests. But it's fine...I'm fine.

5. The Friends

I have so much to say about this topic. I really did have some amazing friends in high school. But senior year is really where it all changed. But it wasn’t necessarily them, however; it was me. Growing up I hated confrontation and did everything I could to avoid it. I still do that to a point today. However, I have learned to speak up for myself and know that I am worth defending myself when appropriate. I learned this lesson senior year. I had friends that belittled me and told me I was, “too skinny” or, “too pale” and that really did put a strain on how I perceived myself. Even with my mother telling me individuals did that to make myself feel better, I didn’t believe it until I really opened my eyes to it all. The friend that was my friend because she kept me around to put myself down in order to make herself feel better, and I kept her around because I felt that no one else would want to be my friend. I didn’t want to believe it because she was one of my best friends, but I couldn’t avoid what I didn’t want to see any longer.

I do have friends from high school that I do stay in contact with and care about deeply, don’t get me wrong. The select few friends I do keep in contact with from high school I love so much, even if we do not talk all the time, and I know they know who they are. However, there were definitely people in my life who were my friends only because I saw them in my classes five days a week.

High school is an experience that everyone will have to go through in their lifetime. However, it should be viewed as a stepping stone that will lead to so many opportunities. Life’s doors will truly open up the second you accept that diploma and throw your cap high into the sky, as high as your dreams should be for the future.