On the first day of freshman year, you walk into school thinking that the next four years are going to be the best of your life. It's a chance to get more involved in new clubs and sports and shake the old reputation you used to carry around in junior high.
I hate to break it to you, high-schoolers, but the next four years actually mean nothing.
Sure, high school is fun, and you get to make a lot of friends and memories that will last a lifetime, but when you're older, do you really want to look back on your high school glory days thinking that was when you hit your peak? If you ask me, it's quite depressing to think that the best days of your life were spent at the same time you went through your awkwardness stage, aka ages 14-18. High school is a place full of children who are only there because they have to be, making friends based on convenience rather than merit. Moving on to the real world and growing up is when you get to figure things out for yourself and become independent. It is when you can truly find out what it means to be happy.
In high school, I wish I would have known that you don't have to deal with people who do not have your best interest in mind. We try to make friends and fit in so hard that we can forget about trying to make ourselves happy. It is easier to be well-liked than to be bullied for actually having opinions and voicing them. We think that because we are on the same athletic team or have the same class as someone we have to be friends with them. You get judged because of who you are, what you think, and what you're involved with anyways, so why not make what you say worth it? Not every move you make is going to be liked, but if you aren't making yourself happy, what's the point? Worrying about what others think of you takes too much time and effort.
In college, I have found that I can be myself and be loved by all of my friends for it. I have burned some bridges along the way, but in the end it was worth it. As badly as you think you want to be friends with someone or with a certain group, if they aren't in it to see you become the best version of yourself, you have to learn how to say goodbye. I wish I would have known that stereotypes don't follow you to college. You think reinventing yourself from junior high to high school is big, try going from high school to college. You can move halfway across the country if that's what you please. No one will know your name, and they won't care if you used to be a cheerleader or the captain of the debate team. You can be yourself and won't be defined by such shallow things.
What I wish I would have known in high school is that it isn't wrong to want to be happy. Who cares what people think about you? Who cares if people aren't lining up to be friends with you? As Taylor Swift would say, “haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate." When you realize your full potential and stop caring so much about what other people think of you, it'll be the best day of your life.
You can't please everyone, and the most important person to make happy is you. I wish it didn't take me so long to realize that I could be confident and independent and not care what my peers have to say. High school can be filled with so much drama and becoming carefree can be the best thing to ever happen to you.
