Growing up and letting go of the past have always been two things that have scared me more than anything. Why would I want to grow up when I'm perfectly happy with the way life is going? I always thought life would stay exactly the same except my age would increase, but that couldn't be more wrong.
When I left for college, I didn't know how much my life was going to change. I was moving to a whole different state, getting all new friends, and becoming responsible for myself. It was so easy to cling onto high school and refuse to accept that it was over, but it was so unhealthy. High school is high school and your time there expires once you graduate. There is no real reason why you need to stay caught up in the drama or the people when you have a whole different life to be focusing on.
One of the weirdest things was realizing that those people aren't all your forever friends. How many times do you hear your parents or other adults say "oh my best friend from high school called" or "let's go have dinner with my high school best friend!"? To me, that's extremely rare. Yeah, I knew there were about two or three people I wanted in my life forever, but I realized there was no point in trying to hold onto those who caused nothing but drama.
Even though I graduated over a year ago, I still find myself in situations with high school people holding me back. One thing I realized is that everyone adjusts to college their own way and it may take someone a lot longer to let go of high school than you. And that's okay.
Whether it's your old friend who always has to be the center of attention or your high school boyfriend, there's nothing wrong with cutting out the negative people in your life to focus on yourself. Moving on is such a hard thing to do, but I promise if you start sooner rather than later, your life will be extremely less stressful, trust me.
Sheetal Tadiparty
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