To most people, including myself, high school taught us nothing relevant to the real world. We never learned how to do taxes, vote, handle money. We never learned how to get a job, invest, or buy a home. Instead, we learned types of rocks, the inside of a cell, and when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. We learned geometric triangles, parts of a sentence, and how to ask to the restroom in a foreign language.

At first, I thought that high school taught me nothing beneficial for the real world. I was only thinking about what I learned inside the classroom. I never took into account what I learned outside those four walls.

High school taught me time management. It taught me how to hang out with friends, while simultaneously getting mostly A's and be apart of multiple clubs and organizations. It taught how to prioritize what is important to me. It taught me that sometimes I will have to put homework over hanging out with friends. High school prepared me for college in that way. I learned that it is OK to choose homework over friends, the same way that it is sometimes OK to chose friends over homework. It taught me balance.

High school taught me that it is sometimes OK to do the bare minimum. Sometimes the most you can do is just get by. It taught me to be OK with not always having the answers. Sometimes, I had to face the fact that I did not know as much as I thought I did. It taught me how to ask for help. It taught me that I may not have the answers for X or know the inner workings of the human body but someone does. I learned to accept my ignorance and ask for help. I learned to help others who need help because I understood being in that situation.

Overall, high school taught me numerous life lessons that have shaped me into the person I am today. I have carried over the lessons that I learned to college. I have been shaped into a better person through high school. Despite not thinking that high school taught me anything, I realized that it actually did teach me a lot.