Dear High School Years,

You were supposed to be the best years of my life. I was supposed to fall in love, go to parties and have someone offer me drugs (that I would be too mighty to take), and make friends that would last a lifetime. Unfortunately, High School Years, you let me down dramatically. I walked in to the doors of that new school with wide eyes and a hopeful smile. I ran out hoping to never look back or see anyone from those horrid four years ever again.

Let’s start with freshman year, where I was trying so hard to make friends and get used to a new school. I was full of dreams and ideas that I wanted to do in my high school career. I was still under the illusion that you provided us doe-eyed freshman with "the best years of your life." I ended the year excited for the next, ready to join a team and make more friends.

Sophomore year brought me new friends and a whole slew of new issues. This was the year that I made the friend that would ultimately help bring back my depression, but she was the "greatest thing ever" at the time. I quickly became entranced, and our friendship consumed me and threatened all other relationships I had previously made. To all the friends I lost that year, I am sincerely sorry. This year, I still clung to the lie that the High School Years were the best and that this girl would be my best friend.

Junior year was the eye opening year. I made better friends and battled old enemies (I swear it sounds like some Hobbit-like thing but it wasn’t like that). I realized what I really loved to study and began to pursued it wholeheartedly. I got my first crappy job at a fast food restaurant. I was kissed for the first time. If it weren’t for the depression and beginner’s anxiety then it might have been a decent year.

Senior year was the best because I had come back from a trip abroad and I finally knew who my real friends were. By this year I realized that you lied to me, and to everyone, about your intentions. You were not the "best years of my life," nor did you strive to be. You were the crap that students have to go through to become well-rounded people with a story to tell. You were the unspoken sadness and mutual trials everyone in the country can relate to — regardless of race, socioeconomic status, gender or age.

Thank you High School Years, for being that one great promise that turned out to be the biggest lie to ever be told. Thank you for being the supreme let down that you were, because you prepared me for adult life more than any class could. You showed me that I could be in the moment in the beginning or middle and enjoy it; but by the end I'd see what was really going on and resent all of it.

I will never regret you, however. You helped turn me into the person I am today and without you, I would have no story to tell, no relative experience to share with anyone I meet, no few friends that have been there through thick and thin. Thank you High School Years for making me never want to relive you, but inspiring me to want to be there for others being tortured by you.