High school is sometimes perceived as the worst four years of many people’s lives. For me, high school was a pit stop before I finally got to go off to university and made my dreams a reality. I couldn’t wait to get out and have a taste of freedom. It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that it slowly dawned upon me that I was finally getting out of that hell-hole.
I was so excited about my new life at university; I could skip class without having to go the office, I’d have more days off during the week, I could live life according to how I wanted and I wouldn’t feel like I was trapped in some prison.
The wave of excitement died down within the first month of university. University put so much more pressure on me than high school ever did. I was shaken to the core upon coming to the realization that I wanted to go back to my old high school.
Come reading week, my best friend and I decided to take a trip down memory lane. We went back to where it all began — not really — we went back to our old high school!
So now it’s time to jump into the four phases of going back to high school after graduating.
Phase One: I’m back!
I pulled my car into the parking lot of my school and saw all these faces that I’d never seen before in my life. The freshmen: they didn’t know how good they had it. For them, this was their new beginning, a fresh chapter, a new page! They probably hated the school so much, because when I was in their place I did too. Walking through the hallways that smelled like weird cafeteria food and going up the attendance desk had me tearing up — I really missed this place. When I went to the office and saw the secretary that yelled at me for skipping, I realized that I missed her too. I think she missed us too because she smiled when she saw my friend and me. That was phase one: a big, fat nostalgia fest.
Phase Two: Hello, old friend
The office lady — as we used to call her — then paged one of my favourite teachers and told him that we’d like to visit him. When we went into his old classroom, I felt like I was back in high school. We were given a microphone and asked to talk about our lives at university. I felt like I was giving a TED Talk and it felt good to stand up there and talk about myself. It was a lot of fun just talking and answering questions about university. We made the rounds and found some of our other teachers, talked to them about life and saw some of the younger kids that we used to be friends with. It was a nice feeling to meet all of our old teachers and friends.
Phase Three: I’m just like you!
So, for some strange reason, we were being treated like adults who had their lives together. All our teachers talked to us like we were equals — the whole teacher and student balance was off. It was a cool feeling to have our teachers talk to us like we had been life-long friends. I wanted to tell my teachers about my successes so that they would be proud of me, I wanted them to think I had it all together. Even if I really don’t.
Phase Four: Can we, like, leave now?
After a while, I realized why I wanted to leave so bad. I still felt like I could get in trouble for the smallest things. At one point I even bumped into a teacher who hated me and vice-versa. Eventually, the allure of being there too long wore off and I wanted nothing more than to get out of there and go back to my university life.
The moral of the story is, while I missed high school and going back was great: I’m happy with my life right now. There’s something that I will always miss like being around the same group of friends all the time, but then there are also things I will never miss.