Dear fellow high school students that feel cheated by all of the media, family members, or even self-promises you were given about what high school was really supposed to be like,
I am so beyond sorry.
I know, I went into high school thinking it was nonstop parties, late night escapades, love triangles, pretty much any and every trope you could possibly think of, I was counting on. No thanks to Fifteen by Taylor Swift, there were absolutely no senior boys winking at me and saying they hadn’t seen me around before. However, there were a few people that I had been in the same class with since the third grade asking me when I moved to our school. Not quite the same whimsical situation I was promised by Miss Swift.
But, have no fear disappointed teens, I am here to tell you that it’s ok! These four years don’t actually have to be the best four years of your life. Yeah, that’s right, it actually can and will get better than this. So stop trying to hype yourself up to go to that party that you won’t know anyone at just to validate your “High School Experience,” stop Snapchatting that boy that isn’t even that cute just because you refuse to leave high school a virgin (because imagine the horror of not having terrible sex with some boy that doesn’t know a thing about the female anatomy aside from the boobs, butt, and the orifices for him to place his penis in), and please, for the love of any and every God, study for your English test. Instagram will be there tomorrow. You will thank me later.
If you take anything from this, above all, please remember that the only person that gets to decide if your high school experience was worth it is you; not the seven drunk girls on your Snapchat stories, not the boy that asks you if “you up” at 3 am when you are 100% not up. You. You get to decide it. So, if binging Netflix series on Netflix series is your thing, go for it, honey! If listening to Frank Sinatra floats your boat better than listening to Drake does, then fly yourself to the moon, my friend! Or, if fighting against the powers that are the patriarchy, ableism, systematic racism, etc. is your thing, then don’t let comments about your anger, bitchery, or liberal-ness keep you from flexing your feminist muscles! Whatever you decide to do with your high school experience will be worthwhile as long as you’re the one that decides what you’re doing with it. You have the power, and I think a lot of us minors forget that, considering we are told for the majority of our pre-adult lives that we are the powerless ones in every situation we enter in, but trust me, when it comes to taking charge of your social and academic lives, you’re the captain. You always have been and you always will be.
High school is just four short years out of your very long life of laughter, discovery, and success, so don’t let these four years have more power than you do. They can be whatever you want them to be because at least they aren’t middle school. Because middle school is the worst time of your life. This is nonnegotiable. I have yet to hear from someone with a good middle school experience. But I have heard many stories of various amazing high school experiences. And almost none of them look the same. Go and experience, whatever that may mean to you.
