According to a recent poll by College Board/National Journal Next America Poll, the majority of Americans think that their high school education could have been much better. Over 70 percent believed that their education would have been greatly improved by learning more technical and life skills. Not only do many believe that their high school education was sub-par, but they also feel that the environment was terrible. Who ever said that high school was supposed to be the best years of your life?

High school is made bearable by the people you surround yourself with, but although these people might seem so important to you at the time, it’s unlikely that you’ll stay friends with them once you graduate. If you’re still friends with more than three people who you went to high school with, consider yourself lucky. It’s a sad reality, but we tend to drift away from our high school friends because of how much we change after graduation. Thank God that we change and mature as people following high school because I cringe at how awkward I was during those four years.

One difference that I’ve noticed between college and high school is that people are just so much more friendly in college. Perhaps this is due to my college having half the number of students as my high school, or maybe everyone in college is just more relaxed. High school always felt like such a tense place because most students refused to leave their small cliques.

In college, learning feels more important than it did in high school. The instructors seem to care much more and don’t really assign unnecessary work. High schools have many standards they need to meet and teachers are often made to teach to a test. Also, most of the classes that college students take are relevant to a self-chosen major, so they are more likely to enjoy the class and be motivated to learn the material. High school students do not have as much choice in the classes they take, so they might have no motivation to learn or put in effort for a class. I’m sure that it can be extremely frustrating for teachers when students put in little to no effort because they just don’t like the class.

Overall, college is a refreshing change from high school. Although I hold great memories from those four years, I will never miss it. High school is a time when teens are trying to figure out who they are while simultaneously being pressured to decide what job they want to do for the rest of their life. I couldn’t believe the all the things that some of my classmates did in order to bulk up their college applications. So much stress is put on high schoolers while they’re trying to grow up. In college, I’m happy to enjoy more free time and less academic pressure. I can’t believe that I used to roll out of bed at 5:30 for five days a week. I appreciate the learning and growing I did in those years, and adore the friends I made, but high school sucked, and I’m so glad that it’s over.