With graduation creeping around the corner, many seniors are finding themselves either already nostalgic, stressed, or stuck. Or, all three if you're really going through it. Planning a graduation party, deciding on a post-high school plan, and getting prepared to leave home can be an immense amount of pressure.
Part of me wants to believe that the feeling of that rolled up piece of paper with a ribbon tied around it dropping into my hand on the stage will make the AP classes, the five SAT's I took, and the countless breakdowns worth it. In the grand scheme of things, high school is rough, but I know that what's to come in college and the real world will probably be a lot more challenging.
Whether it's the teachers who have shown me an extensive amount of patience, or the gym teacher I never had that called me sweet the other day; if high schoolers didn't have that kind of support system around us, I genuinely think we'd go mad and crumble under the pressure eventually.
Whether it's the lunch table full of freshmen that just need to stop yelling at 10:50 a.m. on a Monday, or realizing that the homework assignment from last night ended up having more questions on the back right when I'm about to turn it in; high school helped me realize that not every inconvenience is detrimental, and not every mistake is a failure.
It can be hard to talk yourself back to reality sometimes. In the world of high school, everything is either enough to collapse your entire world or not nearly important enough to bat an eye at (ironically, the latter always being when it actually matters).
It's the land of extremity. More people seem to be against you than on your side, despite how kindhearted you try to be. It seems to be high-school code or something; plus, everyone's still figuring themselves out and it's a rocky road to travel along, even for the most perfect of us all. Regardless of that, just as there will always be one person against you, there will always be the people by your side who you don't recognize to be so essential at the moment.
Especially during senior year, the cycle of "first lasts", to just lasts until you're all done, can be a harsh reality for some to face. It truly matters how you spend those moments and how you treasure the little things while you have them. The people who contribute to those moments make them even more worth living, even if you don't recognize how much they contributed until your 10-year reunion.
I know that the day I flip the tassel will be one of the most memorable days of my life, leaving behind my childhood to pursue my future career. High school definitely may not have been the best 4 years of my life, but it would be a stretch for anybody to say that high school is an invaluable, worthless experience.
Those four years teach you what you like, what you don't like, and what you should learn to tolerate. High school isn't about the extremities, the breakdowns, and a grade point: it's about learning, growing, and taking every moment in while you can.
