When I was in middle school, the high school almost looked like paradise to me. I remember how imprisoned I felt at the middle school and that sense of being locked up made me feel like I was finally free when I reached high school. Although I definitely gained some freedom when I transitioned from middle school to high school, the only other thing that I feel like I gained were life lessons.

To me, high school was a giant crash course on the nature of humans. I will give some of my teachers a little bit of credit for these lessons, but not because they lectured me about life. I still believe that there are good people, but high school taught me that there are many bad people as well. Not everyone has a kind heart. In fact, there are far more users than givers in this world. More people want to see you crash down to their level instead watch you of succeed.

High school also taught me that you do not have to be nice to everyone. Throughout my entire high school experience, I tried so hard to shower people with kindness and compassion. I tried to be a beacon for those who needed guidance because I know that a lot of people have a lot of things in life much harder than I do. I learned, unfortunately, that I cannot fix everyone. However, that does not mean that I will not still try.

I learned that people become victims to their own emotions dwelling in their minds. I learned a little bit of this through myself, but I learned a lot more through watching others. Humans are constantly at war with their own thoughts and many believe that substances are the answer. I realized after high school how bad substance use was among the American population. I can still say that high school taught me this though, because I learned through my high school comrades.

I learned that people do not care because they are so obsessed with what is going on in their own lives. This sounds horrible, but it can also be a good thing. I finally realized that people do not really care about me as much as I thought they did, and I do not have to always be perfect. It is okay to be flawed, because everyone is.

Everyone is confused. Everyone is broken in some way or another. Broken people want someone to help them cope with their pain, not to fix them. Some people only want to be around you when you are beneficial, and then they toss you when they feel like you are no longer useful. So many people left my life who I thought cared about me. I can honestly say that when I left high school, I did not remain in contact with a single classmate at first. I did not see the point. If they did not care about me in school, what was the point?

Now that I am in contact with a few of my old classmates who reached out to me, I have learned that people change. Everyone is capable of choosing a different path if they want to do something else with their life. However, not everyone does.

I still watch people fall apart. It is hard seeing people that I grew up with lose their sense of morality and side with the evils of the world. High school taught me that not all change is good. Change can scar and ruin people.

High school made me grow up, at first slowly, then quickly. I matured rapidly over my senior year when I finally realized everything that high school had taught me. For that, I am grateful. If my public education did anything, it made me an intelligent person as far as understanding the many evils that are present on our earth. Because of how difficult it was for me to learn these lessons, high school was far from the best four years of my life.

I am thankful that I had the public education at the school that I did. I know that it was better than a lot of other schools, but that still does not change the impact that it had on me. I have learned that life is a journey, and I will not let any of it be the best or worst years. I want to appreciate every year that I get to experience, because with each year I continue to grow and progress as a human being.