I'm one of those people that will quickly tell you they hated high school. I love learning, but I really loathed my school. Even though I "hated" it, it wasn't all terrible. It wasn't all dancing at basketball games and singing "We're allll in this tooogether", but there were some things I appreciated about it.

1. You didn't feel rushed to have your whole life figured out.

My only focus in high school was graduating. There wasn't any pressure to figure out what I was doing with my life. My only focus was doing well in all of my classes so I could then go off to college.

2. Everyone was in the same boat as you.

Everyone in high school was the same, more or less. We were all just trying to deal with the unnecessary school rules, finding someone to sit with in class, and walking across the stage at the end of senior year. Everyone was working towards the same thing, getting their diploma. In college, everyone is working towards different degrees in different areas of study. There are also some people starting their families already.

3. Everyone had relatively the same schedule.

Of course everyone had different classes, but everything was all at the same time. The school day started at the same time everyday for everybody and ended at the same time everyday for everybody. (In college, you get to customize your schedule. You can even do all of your classes at night if you're not a morning person.)

4. You were able to see your friends, even for just a second.

Even if you didn't have any of the same classes as your friends, you could see them in between classes or even at lunch. Now everyone is away at different colleges, living in different states, or even studying abroad. You get to see all of their life updates on Facebook now.

5. You had these grand ideas of life after high school, before realizing they were actually harder to accomplish.

I was going to travel the world right after graduating and be this awesome adult. COMPLETELY untrue and never happened. For some reason, I had forgotten that you kind of need money to go places, and I have to go to school to get my degree. Obviously I'm hopefully going to be able to travel in the future, but not as an 18 year old with no money.

6. Your only goal was to graduate.

I wasn't concerned with what I was going to do with my life while I was in high school. I was 14 Freshman year, I didn't care about what my lifelong profession was going to be. It hit me as soon as college started that I need to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, because I kind of needed to work towards something. Now my current goal is getting my PhD in English and becoming a teacher, not just graduating.

7. You pretty much knew what you were doing.

You had Math 2nd period and lunch at 11:30, you had everything lined out for you. Now it's waking up every morning and decided whether or not you're actually going to go to class. Not only that, but also wondering if what you're doing is right. I started college as a Biology major, and now it's second semester and I'm an English major. Cleary I'm indecisive.