We have all had that feeling in high school. The "I can't wait to get the f*ck out of here" feeling. But some of us felt it more than others. Some of us didn't enjoy high school. We realized as soon as we stepped through the doors on the first day of freshman year that these years would not be, in fact, the "best four years of our lives." We were right. Not to say that we didn't enjoy ourselves at all. They just weren't the best years of our lives.

Maybe it was because we didn't hang out with the "popular" kids. Or maybe it was because we didn't really play sports, especially not varsity. We never even went to State in speech or got any lead roles in the musicals or plays. Maybe it was because we were too..average?...for us to really enjoy any of the things high school had to offer. Plus, the school didn't offer other things like "writing club" or a "science club" for those of us who knew their strengths resided somewhere else.

Maybe we were too "mature." We didn't feel like it was the right thing to do, to go out to parties and drink every weekend. Plus, we didn't really want to experience hangovers on repeat...at least, not with our parents. Perhaps it's because we were homebodies and didn't like to go out much, period. We liked the mall, going out to eat occasionally. But we mostly just liked to stay in and watch movies and eat buckets of ice cream and talk about the people that we just couldn't stand.

It could have been because we knew we could never get away with half of the things some of those other kids got away with. Getting MIP'd would mean the end of any good reputation for us, but the star athletes only got to miss a few games. Nor would we be able to talk back to the teachers, or stand up for ourselves and get the attention we would deserve. We knew we had much quieter voices than that of some of our peers, even though our record was a little cleaner.

Maybe it was because we knew we could find better friends in some of our teachers than we could have with half of our class. Not that we did, but we knew that those teachers could be counted on, even though our peers seemed to loathe them.

Perhaps we just knew that life would get better. No matter how amazing high school would have been, there is no way it could beat the feeling of writing your first novel, getting married to your best friend, getting a Nobel prize or even the feeling of parenthood. Maybe it's because we could see our own potential seeping past the walls of high school. And if we stayed, our potential for anything more amazing would diminish.

Though high school definitely was not the best years of our lives, it was still enjoyable. The memories, the fights, the friendships, the teachers, all of that helped to shape us. All of that made us realize that we are more than the four years of high school.