If you have four years, 27 classes and 175 days, how many long-lasting memories can you possibly make in high school? The limit does not exist.
Cady Heron from critically acclaimed film, “Mean Girls,” had the right idea when it came to high school in terms of math problems, but definitely not the basic superficialities that stem from cliques and so-called queen bees.
The miniature high school version of reality isn’t about wearing pink on Wednesdays; it’s about wearing red on Wednesdays as Peer Listeners. It’s about wearing tacky tie-dye shirts for Spirit Week, wearing baggy P.E. clothes or sports team uniforms, wearing Rampage shirts on distribution days and joining activities and classes to find yourself. As the legendary Ariana Grande once said, “I’ve become who I really are.”
Looking back at my childhood I see a slightly shorter, nerdier and more unrealistic shadow of my life now. I was the girl who studied for her CSTs, aced every AR test and shied away from stepping out of her comfort zone in elementary and middle school. High school doesn’t just change you, you learn to find yourself.
For some people, taking all those honors and AP courses or participating in a bunch of extra-curricular activities means building a solid path straight into a highly ranked college. But for me, those activities and classes helped me build friendships with the people who shared the same interests as me, and they helped me learn to work harder than I’d ever had to before. I managed to stay close to the friends I have had since fourth grade, I met people I would have never talked to without joining tennis and Rampage, and most importantly, I kept myself motivated and excited for each year of high school.
Every time I was struggling, whether it was to raise my 89.9 in Honors English 1 (I cried myself to sleep over that B+) or to do three chapters of WHAP questions in a night, I reminded myself of the good times over the bad, and didn’t let any of those struggles turn into a regret. I finally realized that letter grades don’t define me (although they do help with the college admissions process). Like Mr. Slattery says, if you honestly try, there’s no stopping you from succeeding. Whether it was pushing myself to get that A in AP Calculus or struggling to plan for an ACS event, I told myself it would all be worth it in the end.
You don’t have to be the A+ student, the star athlete, the most popular kid in school or even worry about whether butter is a carb to make the most of high school. Some of my best memories here have been in classrooms, the tennis courts, these hallways lined with red bricks and otherwise mundane aspects of high school. Sure, I didn’t find the Peter Parker to my Gwen Stacy, or even As in Lieu, but I’m not going to be thinking of what could have been these past few years as I make my way towards UCLA this fall. If someone asked me about the regrets I’ve had in high school, I would say nothing at all. It’s not worth it to worry about every little thing that goes wrong, because it’s not going to matter in the long run anyways.
High school is obviously not going to last forever, so don’t sweat it over those could-have beens, what-if’s and should-have-beens. Live your life according to Scottie P. from the critically-acclaimed film “We’re the Millers” does: with no ragrets, not even a single letter. Y’know what I’m sayin’?
TCHS School Newspaper