Hi, friend.

I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what your situation looks like. I don’t know if you’re graduating this year or three years from now.

No matter what it is that’s making you want to leave, I probably have a pretty good idea about how you’re feeling.

From the time I began high school, I couldn’t wait to get out. I couldn’t stand all the pointless drama, biased teachers, and hours of homework.

Don’t get me wrong, there were parts of high school that I loved. Sometimes I miss the people I grew up with, home games on Friday nights, and lunch table conversations.

But for the most part, I just wanted to be done.

I wanted to be done having to raise my hand to be allowed to use the restroom. I wanted to be treated like the young adult I felt I was. I wanted to get the heck out of the place that the government forced me to go to every day.

If this sounds like you, I’m here to tell you that no matter how many times people try to tell you otherwise, high school isn’t necessarily as good as it gets. I get it—high school is practically your entire life right now. It’s where you socialize, it’s where you spend most of your time, and it’s probably all you’ve ever known. It’s where you begin to figure out who you are, which groups of people you like to hang out with, what you’re going to do after graduation. I know it might suck a lot right now and everything that happens to you makes you feel like the entire world is crashing down around you, but that’s not going to last forever. As soon as you get that diploma, you don’t have to go back unless you want to hit up a game or class reunion.

I promise you, it’ll be over soon enough. You’ll be able to get away and be whoever you want to be.

As soon as I got to college, I realized how much of myself I was holding back while I was in high school. I formed a completely new friend group and was able to basically start over without people having any preconceived notions about me. Now, I’m free to truly be myself. My new friends introduced me to everything they are interested in, and I ended up figuring out what I feel like God wants me to do with my life. When I was in high school, I found it hard to live out my faith. Now that I’m away from all of that, I feel like I’ve been able to grow to be much closer to God and even learn how to bring other people to Him. I can say with complete confidence that I am not the same person I was in high school.

If you’re struggling right now, don’t forget that all of this is temporary. Try to soak up how good it feels to be young and focus on the good stuff. When it all seems like too much, just remind yourself that there is life beyond high school.