I, for one, never felt nostalgic about leaving high school behind for bigger and better things (college, in my case). I didn’t feel a single thing about it until I went home for the first time after moving away. It's important to move on from high school and realize that there are more important stages of life, but it also shouldn't be brushed aside as if it were nothing either. Here are the reasons why I’ve decided that it’s okay to feel a little nostalgic about high school and the class you graduated with.

1. High School Was a String of Pivotal Moments:

You probably started high school as a one track minded fourteen or fifteen year old. That one track was likely to be either the most popular, the all-state athlete, the 4.0+ GPA student, the prom queen, student body president, or maybe you aspired to be none of those things, maybe your one track mind led you to try to be "different" from the rest. Whatever your goal initially was, I'm sure you left with a different one, or felt accomplished for following through with a variety of goals. Maybe you made all-state for four years. Maybe you were prom queen by a landslide. Maybe you were the valedictorian. Chances are, you did a number of things you hadn't originally planned on. High school does that to you, you reach a bunch of little goals and accomplishments on your way to meeting your big ones. High school shows you all of your capabilities, talents, and skills. Chances are that your goals changed along the way as life changed too, and that's okay. That's what high school was for.

2. You Probably Made Some Forever Friends:

Whether you became friends with your locker neighbor, your co-captain of a sports team, your 3rd period chemistry partner, or the person who introduced themselves because of the monumental sneeze you let out mid-lecture (that story is for another time), they likely impacted your high school life in some monumental way. It's not even out of the ordinary for them to be a significant part of your life post-high school life. High school provided the opportunity and settings to make friends with people who were "just like you" so you didn't have to go through those both awful and wonderful, four years alone.

3. It's Likely That You Fell in Love:

You didn't necessarily have to fall in love with a boyfriend/girlfriend to have fallen in love in high school. High school probably taught you to fall in love with something, whether it be a sport, an activity, an idea, a group of people, a singular person, maybe you even learned how to appreciate yourself, and develop some love for the person you were growing up to be. Let's be honest though, there's that one person that you thought you were in love with; the quarterback of the football team, the head cheerleader, the "hot" teacher, your best friend's older sibling, the homecoming queen, the list goes on and on. It's likely that high school made you fall in love at least once.

4. Life Was Easy:

You weren't paying for college, rent, paying off a car, working a job you hated, and not having enough time or money to do it all. Our parents weren't kidding when they told us that the adult life isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Looking back on high school really makes you appreciate the roof over your head, the home-cooked meals that you didn't plan or buy for yourself, and the constant attention given to you by your family, friends, and coaches.

5. You Got to Practice How to "Do" Life Before You Actually Had to:

For the most part, you paid for the mistakes you made by getting grounded, losing your phone, or receiving the gift of a stricter curfew. Life doesn't always give you the luxury of a minor slap on the wrist for our wrongdoings. High school was our chance to stay out too late, sneak out, hang out with the wrong crowd, tell some white lies, and break a few rules without any major consequences. You'll never forget the people and the moments you shared those acts of rebellion with. That's a gift from our high school selves to our present selves. We can hang on to those memories well into our adult lives and use them to laugh at and learn from.

6. The Class of ______, Changed:

You've lost a classmate already, seen classmates get married, have kids, move away, stay home, go to college, come back, whatever it may be, your graduating class is in a constant state of change. The last time that you were all on the exact same page was the day you all walked across the stage to individually get your diplomas. After that day, you all scattered and went your separate ways. It's okay to feel nostalgic about high school because that was the time when everyone was ultimately moving in the same direction, graduation. After graduation, all bets were off. Classmates could grow up, move on, and move away. It's okay to remember your graduating class in its original form, because each member played a minor (or major) role in your life at some point, and that's something to hold on to.

7. It Wasn't All Bad:

As much as we tell ourselves that we're glad it's over, or we don't miss it, there's probably a part of you that does. You miss the carefree feeling, the thought of your whole life ahead of you, and the thoughts of the endless opportunities that surely await. High school gave you "your people", your moments to hang on to (the good, the bad, and the ugly), countless life lessons, and finally, it gave you a group of people that you'll forever be connected to. As hard as you try, you won't be able to forget your graduating class because they're the ones that laughed with you, made you cry, competed with you, loved you, and ultimately helped to shape you into who you are today. I'll be forever thankful to my graduating class and the tremendous impacts they've made on who I am today, and who I'll be fifty years from now.