College.
After your senior year, you exchange the hall passes and bagged lunches of high school and abandon the town you grew up in to start completely new in the fall. It's the next adventure for most people and is without a doubt, better than walking in the halls next to people you've known for most of your life. It's something new, something different. You always hear that "it gets better after high school," and here's why.
You get to meet new people.
You'll meet people from all over the country. Believe it or not, there are people out there that like the same things as you that you haven't met yet. They might live in your dorm, be in one of your classes or in the same major as you. You just have to find them.
No more strict schedules and all-day school.
In college, you get to pick your own schedule. You don't have to attend class for six hours straight only to go home and do more homework.
Less judgment from your peers.
At most colleges, the prevailing attitude is that you can do what makes you happy and be whoever you want to be. I've seen kids rollerblade through campus in a costume without getting a second look.
You don't have to wake up early if that isn't your thing.
Again, you get to make your own schedule. So if waking up at 6 a.m. every day wasn't your thing, don't worry. You never have to again. Well, at least until you get a real job.
You get to decorate a dorm room.
It's your own space that you get to decide what to do with. A lot of people I know hang crafts and pictures. Everyone may have the same room layout, but the decor is vastly different. It's one thing that is unique to you.
Less busy work.
You may have bigger papers and longer deadlines, but the projects you're working on actually matter and enhance your learning instead of just giving you something to do for the sake of giving homework.
An increased sense of freedom.
You're living without parents, so you can eat what you want and stay out as late as you want. While some people can get carried away, for the most part this is a good thing.
More personal responsibilities and accountability.
With increased freedom comes the fact that you have to be responsible for what you do with it. College is the first step to being completely on your own, so it helps to start getting used to that accountability.
The ability to do what you want, when you want. For the most part.
Get out of class early? You can do whatever you want with that free time. You could fill it with Netflix and snacking if that's what you want to do; the choice is all yours.
You're one step closer to adulthood.
Although adulthood is the daunting, scary thing that happens after graduation, everyone looks forward to it. You get to make your own decisions about how and where you want to live. You are finally doing things for yourself. You earn and spend your own money and it's the future everyone has been planning for the past 20-some years of their lives.
Really, it does get better after high school.
