Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Lessons High School Taught Me That I Didn't Realize Until I Got To College...

So for all of you that aren't in high school do you remember complaining about how badly you wanted to graduate?

See, the difference between high school and middle school is that some people will admit high school happened. Middle school is a figment of the imagination. That's why we have high school reunions and not middle school reunions.

High school was a time of learning. Not like math and English. Like learning about life, and a lot of the lessons I learned in high school I didn't even know I learned until I got to college.

Damn you, public school.

Lesson 1: Be careful who your friends are. How many of my best friends from high school do I talk to on a regular basis? None of them. Am I still friends with some of them? Yes. Do I regret letting some of them get to know me as well as I did? Most definitely.

Lesson 2: Corollary to the lesson above, everyone I've met in my life is a blessing or a lesson. Or both, if you're lucky.

Lesson 3: What you did in high school DOES NOT MATTER in college after you've been accepted and scholarship money has been dealt. You were popular in high school? Who cares. You were student body president? Nobody cares. The only thing that matters is what you're doing in college now and who you are once you start the new part of your life. It's called a new part of your life for a reason.

Lesson 4: You don't have to have your life figured out by the time you are given a diploma. My first semester of college is over and I still have no idea exactly what I want to do with my life. Despite what most analogies say, life is not a book. You can't flip to the last page and have the ending handed to you. That's not how life works.

Lesson 5: The friends you make outside of high school and in college have the potential to last a lifetime. The people you meet when you go to college or are beginning to start a new part of your life are often in the same boat as you, and life changing situations that you experience with others often create strong bonds. If for some reason I find a woman that can tolerate me enough to spend the rest of their life with me, I think the people in that wedding (and I'm NOT looking to get married any time soon, mind you), for the most part, are people that I met after I walked across the stage and took my diploma.

Lesson 6: Go out of your way to brighten the days of other people. The cattiness of high school easily blinds you to what's truly important. Your image in high school won't matter when high school is over. I know it's hard to accept, but it won't. The habits you form in high school, however, will last well after you graduate. Why not form a habit of making other people happy?

Lesson 7: Your passion will stick with you. Music. Leadership. The two things that I was most involved in during high school. Conveniently they're the two things I'm most involved in post high school. Your passion helps define you, and chances are your definition isn't finished once your secondary education. Stick with what you love.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed high school. Except for the mono part. That was hell. I met people, worked on discovering who I am, and grew as a person.

Do I like college more? Duh.

Would I go back and change anything? Probably not. There were parts of high school that I hated. But I'm not a risk taker. I wouldn't want to change anything because I'm happy where I'm at and I wouldn't want to change the way I'm living life now.

If you're in college, I hope you can relate to my experiences.

If you're in high school I hope that what I learned will be helpful to you.

If you're done with college I hope I'm explaining this correctly.

Stay you.

Love always (unless you're a Republican),
Tyler

Just kidding about that Republican part.

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