I spent the greater part of my high school career musing over the things I did not have. At that time, the list felt unbearably long: I did not have a car (in fact, I didn’t even get a license until a few days before graduation), nor a boyfriend and I’d never gone to one of those basement parties equipped with red cups and hundreds of Facebook pictures that managed to be both embarrassing and incredibly flattering. I wasn’t particularly interested in that final bit, but I could not help but feel that I was missing out on a world of the experiences that my peers were reveling in.
It goes without saying that high school was not the best four years of my life, as some (shockingly) say. I was consistently bored, sleep-deprived and overly sheltered, and by the time second semester of senior year rolled around, I had reached a plateau in the ambition and effort that I was able to produce. Yet those years, however long they dragged on, were incredibly formative. South Brunswick High School taught me the kind of ownership and autonomy in my education that I realized were unparalleled upon coming to college. I know that there are no entitlements, no shortcuts and most definitely, no curves in the real world. Moreover, I realized that once I let go of the notions of what I thought high school ought to be and embrace my own unique experience for what it was, it was indeed one to cherish. High school does not have to be a John Hughes movie, and for all intents and purposes, it won’t be. You will likely not meet the love of your life, you may not be a part of a senior prank that will be immortalized in your school’s history and the most fun you can expect to have on some Fridays may be staying in and watching Pretty Little Liars. But that’s fine. Because there is, without a doubt, a life beyond high school that is likely to give you a fair share of life experience, and then some.
