Let me guess. You played a sport while your friends cheered you on. Your last name was painted across their chests while others held up a poster of your face. If you didn’t play the sport, you got the same state of euphoria when your posse rolled up to the scene – whether it be a sports game, homecoming dance, basement party, etc. You probably swept the category of ‘most involved’ or ‘most spirited’ for senior year Mock Elections, and it was almost a unanimous vote for you to be on homecoming court. You knew everyone and you most likely think that everyone knew you too. You graced the halls like a hero. Unfortunately, every hero has its weakness. For superman it was kryptonite, for you it was graduation.
With all of this passionate and popular involvement, it’s easy to look back as you sit in your dorm room and believe that you have “peaked.” After all, you have gone from being a big fish in a little pond, to a guppy in an ocean. People often use the term “peaking” as the time we are at our prime in any activity. But, we are still so young that we are so far from reaching the “prime” of anything. Sure, high school was great, and the exhilaration of knowing everyone and being involved in everything was thrilling, but we have so many more things in our lives to look forward to. We should always take an opportunity to learn and explore.
To say that we have peaked with the opportunities that are being presented to us is naive. How can you be sure you’ve reached the top point in life without being in love, getting married and starting a family or buying your own house? How can you hit your prime without experiencing travel, where you explore a new place, eat something your taste buds could have never imagined and meet people in a different hemisphere? How can you exceed your limits without being in the workforce, earning your own money, being promoted to a high position, or pursuing your passion? The point is, you can’t.
You haven’t peaked. You were fortunate enough to have great experiences and you have your whole life ahead of you to see and do more. If you let the years behind you get the best of you, then you will fail to grow, and that is when you will peak. Always looking for ways to be faced with new challenges (rather than sticking to the basic paths of high school popularity, what you get involved with in college, and typical suburban families) is important in life. You never know at what stage of your life a friend group will come along or a weekly activity will take place that gives you the same state of euphoria that high school once did. You didn’t peak, it was just a part of the hike up YOUR mountain.
Sincerely,The girl who thought she peaked in high school