If you say that the mess referred to as high school was the best time of your life… I feel very concerned for you.

Maybe I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you forgot what high school really was like. If you seriously remember high school for what it is, and truly mean it that those years were golden for you… let me remind you of these things.

1. Navigating a class change

Ah, the sound of loud, obnoxious classmates trampling through a narrow hallway. Nothing beats the slew of curse words you hear just in passerby and all the music that is not yours. Thank you to those who forcibly took up the role of DJ; we really needed someone to do that. Being stepped on, aggressively shoved, and made late by others is an experience all by itself that makes high school so…not golden.

2. Paying $50 for a parking pass

Let's not forget that these parking passes only count for one semester. We pay taxes for the land the school is on anyway?? How are you going charge me $100 when I’m making the bus route lighter and pay taxes to go here?

While we are talking about parking, let’s remember the terrible traffic by the school and the parking lines being nonexistent.

3. The busy work

While high school is undoubtedly way easier than college, some of the work is excruciatingly meaningless. I know that many of my teachers put effort into assigning us quality homework, but I was still coloring pictures as a junior in an AP class last year. My time is worth more than that.

4. The 7 hours of school, straight.

Just the fact that, at least until you were an upperclassmen, you had to be at the school for a full 7 hours should be enough to prove it wasn’t all that enjoyable. Do you really want to be ANYWHERE for 7 hours? I was at school for longer than I slept the night before.

5. The minimum wage job after those 7 hours

As a high school student, if you worked, it was an entry level job that did not pay well. For myself, there were days I was at school all day and immediately drove to work after, while doing that until 10 at night. Those days I left the house at 7:30 AM and got home at 10:15. I wouldn’t consider those days as the best of my life.

6. Dealing with the stage where drinking makes you COOL

As someone that uses their brain a little more than my fellow peers, I was annoyed by seeing alcohol all over social media on the weekends. I did not want to be there. I was focused on my own goals, and trashing my liver was not one of them. I just got sick of seeing the same thing every Friday night. The worst part was at one point everyone was very seriously convinced that it was the coolest thing. I do not condone underage binge drinking, but if you’re going to do it then you don’t have to show us every time.

7. Being forced to learn in depth things you don’t care about

Ah yes, even if my goal is to become a lawyer, I should definitely learn about chemistry. I mean seriously, I know that math expands parts of your brain and teaches you ways of analyzing, but chemistry? Chemistry is just another math class that’s painted as a science. It’s just more math that I already learned the semester before in a different way. If you can’t tell, I hated chem.

8. The dress code

Especially if you have a class that has sub-par AC, the dress code stinks. As a girl, you are practically forced to wear jeans all the time. If you try and get away with breaking dress code you have to walk the hallways on high alert. If you happen to stroll by an administrator or one of the teachers obsessed with giving dress code violations, you’re done for.

I love being able to wear nike shorts to college classes. Sweet freedom.

9. The drama

For some of you this was your favorite part! To avoid drama in high school, you basically had to be deaf and mute. The he said/she said felt never ending. With so many immature people stuck in one place, the drama was inevitable.

10. The sleep deprivation

Last but least, running on an average of 6 hours or less of sleep every night. Sleep deprivation seriously messes with you and your health. Mix that in with the stress about grades and I was getting a migraine every two weeks.

I'll never forget when I pulled an all-nighter (almost, I had a 30 minute nap at like 3 AM) to finish an AP assignment, and the teacher didn't show up to school the next day. Called out sick. The assignment due date was pushed back. Oh cool. it's not like I destroyed my body getting this done last night or anything.

Hopefully by now you realize that nostalgia is indeed a liar. When someone says high school, and you only picture laughing with friends and cheering at football games, you aren’t thinking realistically. For me, high school was filled with wasted time, migraines, and stress over grades. It is not worth missing. Live your life facing forward, pursue your passions, and know that the best is ahead of you.