We will have the rest of our lives to grow old, the mere minutes of your life is youth, for kids who grew up too fast, out of circumstance or boredom, that's your prerogative

high school kids who have nothing left in them but money, because their southern charm was spent standing behind their mothers and successful fathers and nodding to confirm their parents' accomplishments

high school kids whose peak started at a football game and ended by snorting cocaine in the same 24 hours

high school kids who study to the point that they're stress outnumbers their oxygen supply because no one cares if you can't breathe as long as you're still able to hold a pencil and recite your student number

high school kids who write strange poems while sitting in first period, trying to write as much as they can before the idea is gone

high school kids who have to watch their mental illness be romanticized, because people think it makes them more interesting

high school kids that compare trauma like grades, as if they define you

high school kids who hide behind keyboards and screens

high school kids who come home to empty houses and empty praise

high school kids who've never seen the ocean

high school kids who always show up but are still never noticed

here is your guide to high school, the groups aren't categorized by the way you dress or what your GPA is because in reality it will never matter. It's what you see yourself, a stranger looking back at you, or the smile you give out like compliments that never quite reaches your eyes

your guide to high school starts and ends with what a stranger sees.