People say high school is the best four years of your life, but I am telling you right now that’s fake news.

There are great things about high school: the Friday night football games, the sleepovers with your friends, the tight knit nature of your class, the feeling people know who you are, etc. However, there are also some pretty nasty things about high school, too (i.e. the petty girls, the immature boys, the inevitability of everyone knowing your secrets, the obligation to be friends with everyone, etc.).

That being said... High school seniors graduating in the next couple of weeks, just know your high school experience does not determine the rest of your life.

In high school, I was never popular. I was too loud and vocal to be taken seriously a lot of the time. When I talked, people rolled their eyes and gave me sideways glances as if to say sarcastically, “Yeah... Okay, Brittany.”

I never dated in high school which led me to believe there was something wrong with me and, in turn, I had a lot of insecurity and defensiveness in my relationships with others. In addition to that, girls would tell their boyfriends to stop talking to me, (which is ridiculous) so I felt I was the problem in every situation. It seemed like I couldn’t talk to anyone earnestly because everyone I turned to repeated my words to someone else.

I played sports, but I was never a great athlete. I was smart but not enough to be recognized. I was funny but also weird. I actively sought a relationship with God, but I still messed up sometimes, so nobody thought of me as a “good Christian”. I was pretty laid back, too, so people thought they could do/say anything to me, and it wouldn’t matter because it was Brittany, and she doesn’t care

So people ran over me, talked about me, manipulated things I said, used me to get information they wanted, and then they left. I would like to say it got significantly better, but it didn’t. Toward the end of my senior year, I had a handful of friends, but even now, I can count on one hand those I still talk to.

To put it simply, high school sucked for me. It was in no way the best four years of my life, and I wouldn’t want to experience it again.

I walked across a stage, hugged my History teacher as she handed me my diploma, and suddenly, I was finished. I was leaving behind the only place I knew for the better of my 18 years, and I entered a phase of life completely new and foreign.

No one would know my name. No one would know about that one thing that happened junior year of high school; no one would care about the thing I said about Sally. I had the chance to be completely me without fear of alienation or judgement.

I came into college with the idea I was still the weird, loud girl who lets people run over her, sings “Ultralight Beam” at the top of her lungs in her car, and watches “Narnia” too many times. I had the mindset I would still be marginalized like I was in high school because that’s just the kind of person I was. Even though nobody knew me, knew my past, knew my quirks, I thought the moment they saw me, they would know. The funny thing about people, though, is they always surprise you.

I found in college I was, and am, celebrated for my differences. Things I would say or do in high school that got glares and scoffs are appreciated and accepted by the people I met at the University of Oklahoma. I found a place my heart can call home and find rest in. I made friends who don’t condemn me or judge me for my flaws, but instead, they encourage me to be the best version of myself.

I am a part of organizations and events that make me feel loved and make me feel like I am making a difference. I am known, and I am loved by the people around me because I am now myself. I am no longer the watered-down, filtered, and fragmented version of myself I was in high school. I can stand up for myself because of the confidence I now have in who I am. I am every bit as loud and weird as I was in high school, but instead of feeling self-conscience about it, I celebrate it and am celebrated for it.

Seniors, you are about to enter the rest of your life - you have the opportunity to reinvent yourself, to be the person you want to be, and to live life without hesitation. You don’t have to pretend to be friends with that girl you just don’t get along with because there are thousands of other people to be friends with. You don’t have to feel insecure about not sharing interests with the people in your class because you won’t see them every day for eight hours straight. Find people who cherish you and celebrate you as you are, not as who they want you to be, or who you could be if you hid your quirks.

Whether your high school experience was the best four years of your life, or the worst, it’s temporary. You are about to enter a completely new chapter of life; you can start fresh and reinvent yourself, or you can continue to be the person you already are. Either way, it’s your decision.

You aren’t in a classroom with the same 30 people every day; you now have thousands of people to live life with. You aren’t stuck in the same walls day in and day out; you have the freedom to set your own schedule, to go to class (or not), to be involved in what you love, to do whatever you want. High school will not follow you to college, or the rest of your life, unless you drag it along. You are free to live the life you want, to choose your friends, to be involved, and to be the person you want to be.

High school is four years. College is four years. You already finished the first half, so live the second half to the fullest. Change what you don’t like and make these next four years better than those spent in high school.

Congratulations on surviving through high school. Now, go live! Go thrive in college and for the next 70+ years of your life.