You hear it all the time: "High school is the best four years of your life! Enjoy it while you can!" Let me say right now that I don't agree with this in the slightest. I wouldn't go so far as to say that high school was the worst four years of my life, but it surely wasn't the best. Although my freshman year of college was stressful and rough, I would say to myself all the time, "At least I'm not in high school anymore." This realization has definitely hit me more going into my sophomore year because I haven't been there in a year and now I know what college is like, so I can definitely say that I really don't miss high school.
I think one of the most obvious reasons that I don't miss high school (and most college students will agree with me on this) is not having to wake up at ungodly hours in the morning anymore. I don't think I ever got used to waking up at 6 AM five days a week, and I was tired every single day for four years. Being tired every day honestly made me so miserable and definitely didn't help the fact that I already didn't want to be there in the first place. You wouldn't believe my reaction when I saw my first college schedule and that my first class was going to be at 11 AM. I absolutely loved feeling more awake and alert when I went to class, and it for sure made an impact on my day because I wasn't tired! Now that I have the luxury of sleeping in almost every day, I will never know how I made it to school on time.
Throughout my high school years, I was never in the popular crowd. I had a solid group of friends, and I'm still really good friends with a lot of these people. Even during my last years of high school, I realized how overrated popularity was. I had no desire to be in a group of a bunch of fake people that are just acquaintances because I value quality over quantity so much more. I hated that if you weren't popular, you were automatically an outcast. I know these people would probably defend themselves and say, "We accept everyone!" That's just not the case, though. I always felt like there was an exclusiveness surrounding these people, like that they were pretty or they were the star player on their sports team. I was beyond ready to graduate and never have to see these people again. I was so excited to move on to college and meet a bunch of new people who didn't know me in high school and didn't judge me on my popularity. That is exactly what happened. I finally went out of my comfort zone and met some really great people that I'm so excited to get to know even more this year. College is like a clean slate: the past four years have been erased and now you can start over again at a bigger and better place.
One of the main reasons I don't miss high school anymore is because of the freedom. There are no more rules that are constantly surrounding your day, like dress code or being in class before the late bell rings. Not that I condone being late to class every day in college, but if you're running late one day, you don't get a detention. Being able to choose how I divide my time since I'm not in school seven hours a day has really helped me become more independent and is constantly teaching me time management. I now know exactly when I have time to finish that assignment or start studying for an exam that is coming up in a few days. No matter how many times your teachers say that this class will "prepare you for college," no amount of classwork can teach you the value of managing your time and being completely on your own with your assignments.
Although I thank high school for giving me my forever friends and some fun memories I will never forget, I know that I have moved on completely. I believe I have done a lot of maturing and growing as a person over the past year that I never saw in my high school self. Again, thank you high school for the knowledge and experiences, but just know that I am never looking back.
