Growing up is a part of life, and striving up to be your best self is important. Your best self should always be ahead of you, so you have something to strive towards. Don't let your ultimate best self be the same person you were in high school
I grew up in a tiny town but went to a decently-sized high school that pulled kids from all the surrounding tiny towns. It was a small town feel, but with enough people to consistently make new friends. I was very involved all throughout high school and my friends were amazing people that really made the experience enjoyable.
Although I had a good high school experience, I am glad to be away from it all. By attending a large university and branching out beyond my high school circle, I have learned countless lessons that have forced me to open my perspective on the world and form better relationships with people.
A lot of the small stuff that mattered in high school doesn’t matter when you get to college. People don’t care what you wear or how much makeup you put on in the morning. People don’t have the energy to pay attention to whether or not you sat alone during a meal.
There is so much more opportunity to be yourself and truly find people that share similar interests. With all the new freedom to express who you are as a person, and to practice self-care, why would you miss the days where you woke up an hour and a half before you had to be at school to put yourself together to impress people you didn’t even like?
I loved my town and I am forever grateful for everything it gave me. It raised me, taught me how to work hard and how to shake off the hard times. But it’s important to move on. Some people come to college and merely stick with their high school friends. I’m still close with a decent amount of my high school friends, and there’s absolutely no shame in that. They have known me and watched me grow, they have been there for me through so much. The shame is in not going out of your comfort zone to befriend people from a different background than you.
When you meet people who didn’t grow up with the same friends and the same experiences, you are forced to challenge the ways you think about others. You fight the stereotypes your mind may have created. You learn to look for redeeming qualities in others and how to hold conversations about a variety of topics. You discover yourselves together, and you learn that people you have known for only a few months can be better for you than people you’ve known for years.
When you learn to separate current from your high school self, you learn to dream a little bigger. It’s ok to want to go back, to raise your kids in your hometown someday as long as you hold these wishes for the right reasons. Have you explored elsewhere and decided that your hometown is where you flourish? It’s not ok to confine yourself to a spot because it’s all you’ve ever known.
When you learn to separate your current self from your high school self, you learn to expand your worldviews. You meet people you would have formerly judged in a negative way, and you realize that you were wrong in your thought processes.
College teaches you so much more than what your exams test you on. College forces you to change yourself for the better. If you resist the change, you will be stuck with the you that was created by the food chain that is high school. I don’t know why anyone would be against forming the best version of themselves possible by welcoming the change.
Look upon your high school days fondly. Hold on to the good friends that stuck by your side through it all. Just don’t let high school be your peak. A portion of four years should not set out your entire life path.