Ah to be young and carefree! High school was one of the best — if not the best — times of our life. Where else were you treated as an adult and do some adulty stuff and at the same time get away with a lot of childish stuff, too?
You’re in that sweet spot between being a kid and an adult — given certain responsibilities as a young adult, but not exactly those of a real adult’s. You can still enjoy being silly and childish because you still are a kid, albeit a bit bigger.
You didn’t have to worry about paying rent or car maintenance. You weren’t thinking about which banks have the best high-interest accounts or dreaming up ways to augment your income. Well, scratch that last one. You always wanted more money because your allowance just didn’t cut it.
High School Jitters
We were anxious on the first day. Different thoughts ran through our minds.
Would I fit in? Would I be cool enough? What will the teachers be like? What about my classmates? Will they like me for who I am?
As you can see, more than the academic side, we were more concerned with belonging and blending in. Of course, we wanted to stand out and excel in what we do, but as much as academics were an important aspect of high school, we also didn’t want to miss out on the fun.
We all probably felt the same way. A lot of us did what we can to keep up with all the school requirements, but we also made sure we had fun doing it.
High school was the time when we learned what it’s like to work hard and play hard. If we didn’t want to waste our weekend working on homework and science reports, we had to put in the work during the week.
In a sense, it made us more responsible for our time because, on top of school work, we also had other responsibilities at home. And although we hated it at the time, looking back now, it wasn’t really that bad.
We were in charge of taking out the garbage, cleaning our rooms, walking the dogs, and occasionally, watching over our younger siblings when dad and mom were away. It’s not like we had to put food on the table and pay the bills, right? But we were entrusted with certain responsibilities that became a good foundation for us and prepared us for life’s realities.
High School High
Getting through high school academically was also a breeze compared to college. It was easier to get decent grades back then unlike in university where you start to know what it’s like to work with blood, sweat, and tears. And that only covers book reports, feasibility studies, and weekly tests, not even the finals.
While acads were pretty easy, the extracurricular activities were really fun. Joining different clubs and organizations give you plenty of time to socialize and meet new people.
It was also easier to get into sports. You can try out for any sport you like and hope you make the cut. If you didn’t, there’s always the book club or the music club. In college, sports were treated like careers. To say that the competition is tough would be a very big understatement.
Either way, you got to meet most of your lifelong friends in high school, people who you can honestly say witnessed how you grew up. These are the guys that you spent countless Friday nights with. The ones you did stupid things with. The ones you cried with on your first few heartbreaks. The ones who got real raw on you and told you what you needed to hear and not just what you wanted.
While high school was a great time for a lot of people, it’s not exactly the same with certain people. It might have been traumatic to other folks, and understandably so. After all, we’re all wired differently and respond to seasons of our lives in different manners, depending on what happened to us during those years.
And although It may not be the best time of your life, it was still probably a fairly enjoyable season.
Saying that it’s the highlight of life might make young people afraid of graduation thinking that things will go downhill from there. To some people, college may be a lot better than high school. To others, it may be when they finally start building their careers. I personally know a lot of couples that would say nothing beats being married to your best friend and starting a family. It’s all a matter of perspective.
But this still doesn’t take away the fact that if you had a great high school life, it probably was epic in so many ways and on so many levels. And yes, if I was given the chance, I’d gladly go through high school all over again.
