Have you ever been told that your teens and early twenties are the best times of your life? While this saying is almost exclusively intended to encourage young people to make the most of high school and college, it is a pretty dismal perspective. It does not achieve its intended goal and rather suggests that the first quarter of your life is amazing and that it is all downhill from there. However, even before quarantine, high school and college were never necessarily the best times of your life, and now more than ever, they definitely are not.
My high school experience had its positives but mainly consisted of a toxic social environment created by caustic people. Whenever others would say, “You don’t like high school? But this is the best time of your life,” I wondered why they would think that because I knew that being surrounded by toxicity was not the best time of my life. I knew that my life was only going to increase in quality after high school. Remembering this is what had me endlessly looking forward to college. Now that I am in college, I have been really enjoying it, but I still know that there is more out there for me.
It may be difficult to foresee the possibilities of the future because of the uncertain times that are present, but I am confident that quarantine will not last forever. There is more to life than this temporary isolation, and there is more to life than high school and college. There are so many possibilities that are open to you after graduation, as a college diploma affords you a safety net and the freedom to choose your professional direction in life.
Whether high school and college are amazing or awful for you, you can make the rest of your life so much better. Schools are institutions that prepare you for making decisions in your life. Perhaps the curricula are not geared to that, but the social aspect of growing into the person you are through your high school and college years is. You make friends in school that you would not likely meet otherwise. You learn just as much about life choices in social experiences with these friends and your family as you do in class, if not more. For example, you choose who your friends are, what you do with your friends, how to balance your social life with studying and your health, how you treat your family, etc., and these choices- and all other choices- yield lessons that are preparing you for your future.
During and after college, you get to decide what you want to do with your life. You can see the world by getting a job that you have to travel frequently for. You can start your own business. You can write a novel and work to become a published author. You can invent something. You can be a yoga instructor and a fitness trainer. You can connect with others and never stop learning from them. You can dedicate your time to helping others by working for a nonprofit organization and volunteering more in your spare time. Whether your dreams and goals are to accomplish all of the above or something entirely different, do not give up on yourself just because the future seems unclear. Let this unclarity motivate you to be innovative so that you can still live the life you want to live.
While the future may seem uncertain now, what is certain is that you always have the opportunity of choice that you can take advantage of to make your life the best possible life it can be. A world of opportunity is open to you after school, so make your future amazing for yourself. The best times of your life are yet to come.
