You hear on repeat from the very beginning of freshman year that high school is going to be the most important and most transformative 4 years of your life, that your choices here are going to determine the entire course of it and so you better be smart about them because, otherwise, you’re probably doomed.
Way to stress out a bunch of 14 year-olds, guys.
I mean, seriously. Why sit down a bunch of already nervous and shy 14 year-olds on their first ever day of high school and tell them that the next 4 years would be the most crucial in determining the paths of their lives?
Okay, I’m not saying high school isn’t important, because it is, and you really should make smart choices while you’re here. But a bad time in high school really isn’t the tragedy that people make it out to be. Your time in high school is not going to define you, despite what they say. It’ll sure have an impact, but it seriously won’t determine the outcome of the rest of your life as long as you don’t let it.
It took me a while to come to this conclusion myself. For much of my high school career I stressed over my grades to the point of tears and took myself way too seriously, fully believing that any failed tests or missing assignments would set my entire life back and make me a total failure—such are the dramatic thoughts of the average young and anxious teenager like I was.
But high school isn’t really so final or determining. It’s not a destination nor is it some metaphorical fork in the road. It is, however, a transitional period—the journey that takes place between the beginning and the end of the stream. And there’s a whole lot of stepping stones in between.
While each of these stepping stones matters—every test and assignment and school event—a couple of missteps won’t stop you from reaching that end because in between each step, you grow. You change and you become all the better for it as you mosey down that stream. And those stones will be right there with you the whole journey (and you can even go back and re-trace them, if you need to).
What they don’t tell you about high school and what you need to know is that you have room to breathe. You can make mistakes and you really can be lazy sometimes and it will be okay. You will be okay.
What I’m saying and what I want you to understand is that you shouldn’t live your high school years with just the goal of getting good grades or getting into a good college. These 4 years are so much more than that. Of course, high school won’t (and shouldn’t) be the best years of your life, but they can (and should) still be special, and a lot of these special moments aren’t going to revolve around the grades you get or whether or not you passed that big algebra test. Of course, while these things are still important, they reduce your experience in high school to a series of numbers and percentages. The numbers will still undoubtedly get you somewhere, but they won’t be that memorable in the end.
The question to ask yourself is what will you remember from high school? I can’t tell you the answer to this, nobody can, but it’s something that you’ll find out on your own as you step and leap from stone to stone down the stream of high school and life. You’ll discover more about your values, your likes (and dislikes), and who you really are as a person. And that’s what truly matters about high school—the journey, not the destination. The stepping stones, not the end of the stream.
