I always see articles about people wishing they knew a certain number of things before they turned a certain age, like 17 Things I Wish I Knew At 17, and I just call bull.

I don't think knowing any of those things would have changed anything.

Those number of things that you didn't know, you learned by having your own experiences and those experiences shaped you to be who you are by teaching you a lesson.

Now I'm not saying that the things on those lost aren't valuable, they are. But they're not going to be valuable before you turn that age because of your most likely going to try to avoid going thru heartbreak and your not going to learn how to cope with that situation or you're going to miss out on that part of life.

If someone had told you that certain thing you wish you knew, you wouldn't have paid any attention to them because we as humans never listen to other peoples advice unless we want it and the only advice we really want are the ones we're looking for.

Also knowing what the lesson is going to be teaching you prevents you from actually learning the lesson it's teaching you. You would've been waiting for it to happen or trying to prevent it from happening which leads you to have the actual experience whether it's good or bad.

I like to learn things on my own. If I knew everything that was going to happen when I turned 16 then I would have just stayed in the house and got homeschooled, because nobody wants to go through losing close friends or getting rumors spread around about them. But that stuff it apart of life and if you don't go thru it in high school then when it happens later what are you going to do.

I think that life after college and life while in high school are relatively the same. You still have the drama and the gossiping and the secret crushes.

I know high school is the worst stage of life because you have your insecurities that you always think about and some people like to use them against you. But if someone told you "oh sooner or later those insecurities won't mean as much as they do now" will you believe them? The answer is no, because we're stuck in the now, and right now those insecurities are weighing you down so you think they will weigh you down forever.

High school is more of a test for real life, and if you know all these certain lessons before you turn 15 or 17 then your not going to learn anything. Sometimes you need to go thru the heartbreak or lose one of your close friends for you can learn how to emotionally get over it.

Growth and knowledge come thru these experiences you have throughout life. Knowing the lessons before your personal experience gives you neither growth or knowledge because that experience helps you be who you are at this moment. So why reminisce on how you wanted to know certain lessons when you could just live in the moment and learn one by one.