Often times when people talk about high school they are talking about the best four years of their life. They had a ton of friends, fun parties, and always had something planned. But for me, this wasn’t the case. I wasn’t popular in high school. I remember a few days I shamelessly sat alone at lunch, spent weekends binge watching a season or two of a show on netflix with my cat and sometimes I was bullied. High school definitely wasn’t the best four years of my life, but it was probably the most important.

See, being unpopular taught me a few crucial things about living in the real world:

1. It's Better to Sit Alone at Lunch Than to be Fake and Sit with A Table Full of "Friends."

This was probably the most important thing I learned. I spent a lot of time trying to fit in (who doesn’t?) but by senior year I had a good idea of who I wanted to be. Unfortunately for me though, it didn’t mesh with who I was around, so I sat alone until I found new friends. This lesson has carried me through my first couple years of college. Deep down I know who I am, I know what I like and what I don’t and I know that if some people don’t like it it’s okay because I will find people that do.

2. Do Not Judge Others.

I always tell people that I try to live judgement free as much as I possibly can. If there is anything I learned from high school it was this: People are going to have opinions of other people, good or bad, but that person most likely has battles they are facing and the last thing they need is unneeded judgement or hate. Be kind to others no matter what you have heard about them.

3. You’re not important.

This isn’t mean, I promise. I actually just had someone say this to me and it was probably the greatest thing ever. Your life is YOUR life. To anyone else you're just another person living another day. Your actions are extremely important to you, and they should be, but they probably aren’t standing out to others and that is totally O.K. So live your life and don’t hold back because you’re worried about impressing others.

4. Be Yourself.

Be yourself, do what you love and eventually you’ll find your path. If you try to “fake it until you make it” you’ll get lost and spend a lot more time trying to “make it”.

5. Be Patient.

Always know that life is going to hand you lemons and sometimes you’re going to try to make lemonade and it’ll come out orange juice. Be patient with life, your time is coming and you’re going to do amazingly fierce things.