Going through high school is certainly an experience. Good or bad, it has an effect on you and how you look at life. If you were lucky, you grew up with the same people from kindergarten to twelfth grade. You watched everyone discover who they were by changing clothes, rotating friend groups, and trying out new reputations. When you graduated, it felt weird to leave that all behind. Maybe you wanted to leave it all behind like I did but for some reason just couldn't.
High school might have been the time of your life. It might have been filled with classic memories like football game tailgates and getting asked to prom. It might have been an experience you'd like to forget because you spend all your time in the library instead of having friends to eat lunch with. Whether you were prom queen or someone who felt like they were invisible, there comes a time where you have to let go of high school.
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As time moves on, people grow. The first two years out of high school has you keeping in touch with friends from your English class, posting throwback Thursdays to Instagram of your prom pictures, and gossiping about who got engaged. But dwelling on the past actually hurts your present. If you get so excited when presented with an opportunity to talk about high school or find yourself harping on awkward moments, you need to let go of high school. No matter what you're doing after graduation, high school is in the past and you're better for it. So what if the girl who used to bully you is getting married? So what if the popular girls seem to be living it up in college? So what if your old crush keeps posting pictures of all the girls he hangs out with? So what if someone who graduated the year before you started their own business? Does any of that really affect your own life?
I didn't get a lot of the high school experiences I wanted. Sometimes I find myself lying awake at night thinking about how hurt I was by some people and regretting not putting myself out there more. It's unhealthy. By dwelling on past experiences, it stops me from living in the present. I ate my lunch in the library most of my junior year. I was never asked to prom and was the girl people made fun of because I couldn't catch a ball in gym class. But that was high school and in the real world and college, people don't care about that. Don't let high school define you. Sometimes it's nice to think about those days and crack open the yearbook every once in a while. Letting go of the high school years is a challenge, especially if you have some really great memories from it. Just remember that greater things will be coming whether you liked high school or not.
