I don’t necessarily miss my high school days. They were really great and I have awesome memories, but I was pretty reserved, mostly because of my anxiety, although I had a small group of friends whom I still mostly keep in touch with today. I didn’t do well my first two years because of said-anxiety, and I didn’t exactly develop a strong set of study skills while I was in middle school. When I transferred to a different high school for my junior year, I finally found the motivation within myself to do well that has only grown since. I was studious, rarely missed a homework, and was very involved in class. My worst subject, history, became my best. My love for english was finally reflected in my grades, and my teachers wondered why I wasn’t on honor roll or in the National Honors Society. If only they’d known that just a few months before, I left my school with a C+ overall average and on academic probation.

I am a firm believer that while talent is a great thing to have, it is hardly important. Instead, hard work is the more underrated characteristic that really matters. Just because you’re not a math wiz doesn’t mean math can never be understood by you. It just means that you have to work extra hard to do well. But at one point or another, don’t we all?

With that said, what I really want to discuss is how fortunate the students who are currently in high school are. Because I didn’t realize this until the Fall semester after I graduated-- but academically, you have it made!

Think about it-- for four years of your life, you get to take approximately eight classes a year based on approximately 32 different subjects. You are given the privilege to sit and listen as those who (hopefully) know more than you, work to make you smarter, more worldly, and a better person. If you’re in public school, you are given all of this information for free (excluding the taxes you pay of course). You are literally given the world at your fingertips and have the opportunity to learn and study them as your main responsibility.

When you get to college, you are both limited and given much more freedom in your education. While most people focus on the freedom of picking your focus of study, nobody really explains to you how you are limited by the amount of credits you’re allowed to take each semester and how they must be relevant to your major. Taking extra classes costs more and might be advised to you as “a waste of time.” Let’s say, for example, that you’re not interested in solely studying psychology, but there is a class that is offered that peaks your interest in the psychology field. Chances are, you won’t be able to take that class, and while there are definitely ways to work around getting the class-- it doesn’t quite compare to the malleability that is high school.

You may be complaining about your chemistry class now, but there will be a time where you may regret not remembering certain formulas when asked, and the terms just “ring a bell.” American history may not be your favorite subject, but come elections and all of a sudden every governmental term your high school teacher quizzed you on, you will be yearning to remember. Spanish class might seem like a waste, but maybe you’ll get the chance to befriend a transfer student from Mexico who doesn’t have many friends yet and can’t speak English as well. If it can happen to me, it can happen to you too.

High school is hardly a glorious time for us all, while there may be some wonderful memories made. But if there is one thing I hope current and future high school students realize is that a free education is a privilege. There are people, your very age, who fight for the ability to learn. So don’t take it for granted, and soak in as much information as you can. You’ll thank yourself later.