High School is the time in your life where you find yourself. Whether that’s through friends, family, relationships, situations or circumstances. It is also the time where you make the best memories and meet your people. You start to find out who you really are and what your passion is. For me, high school was a tough chapter in my life. It started with my first high school closing down my Freshman year because of financial issues within the school. Followed by my second high school closing down my Junior year because of COVID.
The phrase “high school is the best four years of your life” honestly did not apply to me. I had suffered a lot of losses during that time in my life. From family members, to friendships, to even my childhood dog. Those four years were definitely not the best but they weren’t all bad. I met some of my best friends in high school and I couldn’t picture my life without them. I had some of the greatest experiences there.
One of my favorite memories was during my Senior year when we had field day. We were split into teams by our homeroom and just had a fun day of competitive games, good food, and many laughs. I have a lot of good memories from high school that I will cherish forever. My Senior year was the best year and even though I miss it dearly, it’s time to let it go. I think the exact moment I realized this was when I first came to college. I kept comparing it to my high school experiences and at first I was struggling. But then I realized college is not like high school and it never will be. I will never experience the same things in college that I did in high school and that’s okay. College is a new time in my life. I am in a completely different state with all new people and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Once I realized this, things started to get better for me. I started making new friends, going out more, and just exploring this new place I call home with new people I call my friends. Even though I will always miss my family and friends back home, it’s time for me to say goodbye and enjoy this new experience for as long as I can. It’s time to let the past be in the past and focus on the present. All my life I have been so focused on the future thinking about where I was going to college, what my major was going to be, and so much more. But I feel like college is the time to live in the moment while high school is always about the future. I am ready to say goodbye to my high school self and focus on my college self.
To finish this phase of my life, there is a quote from Albert Einstein that I relate a lot with:
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
Albert Einstein