As a rising senior in high school, I came to a very important realization - when everyone tells you that high school will be the best four years of your life, they are completely lying to you and I, was completely lied to. These have, in no way, been the best four years of my life, in fact they might be down there with being the worst four years of my life. In no life will my freshman year boyfriend cheating on me and my C in chemistry ever amount to "the best four years of my life". However, I wouldn't trade the lessons I've learned from high school for anything in the world.

Having switched from a public to private school at the start of my freshman year, I had to leave all the same people that I had been friends with for the past eight years. I was optimistic about making friends going into my freshman year and after about the first week, my dreams were crushed. I quickly came to realize that everyone had gone to the private middle school together and already established their friend groups, I was in fact the kid that came from public school that nobody knew. I was only able to make one, real, good friend. She still to this day is my best friend but she is two years older then me, so as just a sophomore, I was left to fend for myself for the rest of high school. Through my lack of friends at my school, I gravitated still towards the same people I had been friends with at the public school I attended. I had a group of friends who invited me places and asked me to hangout on a consistent basis, and in high school, you need as much stability as you can grasp on to. So, I've spent the past three years of high school mostly hanging out with girls who don't go to my school. I have two best friends, one has been my best friend for as long as I can remember and I can't wait for her to be my maid of honor in my wedding. My other best friend has been around since 7th grade, the three of us do everything together, then we have a few other really good friends. We usually spend our time with three other girls and the six of us have became a pact.

Having said all of this, there are definitely nights where I cry in my moms bed, telling her that all I want is to get invited to a party that someone from my own school is having and wondering why nobody was accepting to making new friends. Yet, every time I get upset about my missed invitation to the party that it seemed like everyone was at on Saturday or the girls day that I always want so badly to be apart of, I remember what it would be like if I have 100 pennies. 100 pennies is like having a whole bunch of friends who are nice to you and will give you someone to sit with at lunch but they don't really care about your problems, these 100 pennies wouldn't have your back or bring you ice cream when you break up with your boyfriend. But my four quarters, they'd do anything for me. My four quarters (even though there is slightly more then four of them - its an analogy, calm down) they would do just about anything for me. They are the people that I do cry to and tell all my problems too, they are the people that do bring me ice cream when I broke up with my boyfriend, they are my people and I couldn't be more thankful for my four quarters. So next time no one invites you to the party and you think that you're the only one who doesn't have any friends ( cause let's face it - we're all that dramatic) just remember your four quarters, eat some ice cream, pet your dog and appreciate the people that love you with their whole hearts.