My Mark on High School

This past weekend, I went to my friend’s birthday party. It was the end of the year and I thought I deserved to have some fun; with no regrets, I went to release my mind from all this academic stress. To my surprise, the experience I got there, remarkably not from the partying, was beyond satisfactory.

Throughout the night, the people became more intoxicated and the party more enjoyable. Every now and then I would greet someone I knew and would talk to them until one of us had to leave. Most of these conversations started off with the question, “Simon? Simon’s at a party?” with an awkward yet appropriate chuckle following.

A couple of hours into the party, I bumped into a friend of mine that I had not talked to for four years, maybe with the exception of glancing and nodding at each other in the hall way. With the music booming in one ear, my friend and I began to have a conversation through the other ear; regardless of his state of mind, I listened to every word he had to say. He remembered how we played on the school basketball team in eighth grade, how that seemed so long ago, when in reality it was only four years ago and unfortunately how we have not kept in touch. But what hit me the hardest was what he said next.

Stumbling over his feet, he asked me if I had picked up my yearbook yet. Before I could reply, he brought up how I had won Most Likely to Succeed in eighth grade and how I won the same award this year as a senior. Even though he was rather inebriated, I took these next words to heart. He said that no matter what the future held in store, he knew from eighth grade that I was going to be successful. It was then that all the thoughts I had tried to forget about before the party flooded into my head. It astounded me how the impression I had formed on people so long ago was still prevalent, even for someone I never kept in touch with.

For some reason, even though my friend was just a kid, not someone of wisdom or age, his words impacted me. I do not know if it is because of graduation goggles, or because I truly felt this way, but it was at that point when I realized that all of us are going to miss high school for our own personal reasons. These reasons can range anywhere from being the center of attention at high school parties to being one of the few distinct academic “celebrities” of the senior class.

Regardless of what happened in high school, I believe we should embrace our past four years and let them guide us into what will make us happiest these next four years. Whether you are a nerd, jock, band geek, skater, or any other member of a clique, I hope you can separate the positive experiences from the negative ones in high school and incorporate what you loved in high school into your college years. After all, college is meant for students to find their passions and interests. In other words, whatever makes them happiest. You only go to college once, so make sure it’s worth it.

As for the rest of the night, it was just a memory for the history books.

~ Simon L.