High school: The time in our lives where we begin to feel independence and start figuring out who we actually are as people. The time we make best friends and lose others. The time we fail our first pop quiz. The time we listen to Taylor Swift's "Fifteen" over and over again and wonder who's actually starting high school at fifteen, because everyone is definitely just turning fourteen. The time we get our heart broken, and learn how to live without someone we always thought we would have around. The time we win a conference championship, and the time we lose one. The first time we feel everything and try everything and watch some of the fastest years go by. The time we enter as awkward, brace-faced, innocent kids, and leave thinking we've experienced everything that's going to come out at us.
We all left high school feeling like we had just finished the best years of our lives, and that especially after college, we weren't going to have anything as exciting happen in our lives. This notion of "these are the best years of your life" isn't true. I mean, why do we let other people tell us what's going to be the best time we ever have? Being inside in a classroom, stressing about grades for 35+ hours a week doesn't sound like the time of my life to me. Here's the reasons why high school, or even college for that matter, don't have to be the "best years of your life":
1. You're going to live 85+ years. Do you really think that the very best years you are going to get out of 85 years is 4 of them when you weren't even able to drive a car without your parents for 2 of them?
2. They say your 20s are a freakin' blast, and most people aren't 20 in high school.
3. Most people think that high school is also when you're in the best shape of your life. Well, I've seen many many people who became really fit after they graduated.
4. After you're out of school and making real money, you will be able to travel! WOOHOO
5. If you end up at your dream job, your years doing what you love will definitely be the best years of your life.
6. You get the chance to fall in love for real, and then get married and have a family. (High school doesn't let that happen unless you're Haley and Nathan.)
7. Just because high school is over doesn't mean you can't play the sports you love.
8. In a few years, you won't have to worry about getting in trouble when you go out with your friends. (Worrying all the time? Doesn't sound like the "best time ever" to me.)
The list goes on and on. My point in all of this is, don't stop enjoying life just because what you thought was supposed to be the best years of your life is over. Open that next chapter in your life story and get ready for the rest of your life. There are going to be so many more magical memories and you are going to love every minute of it. Don't waste time worrying about the past and wishing for it back. Think of the memories, look at the old photos, tell the stories; just make sure you leave room in your heart for even more. Don't count out the best years of your life just yet. When you're 90-years-old you'll look back and see everything you accomplished, and that's when you'll truly know when the best years of your life were.
