The Class of '96
Today, I got an invitation in the mail to a high school graduation. It is for a third- or fourth-cousin of mine, Christine, to whom I have spoken a couple of times at family functions. Opening the formal envelope-within-an-envelope, I was taken back to my own high school graduation.
I remember how GLAD I was to be done. High school has got to be one of the hardest times for a person. There are so many cliques, so many mean comments, so many insecurities. It sounds like I was some lame, inferior, picked-on-kid, but I wasn't. I was pretty average in most things, but I was "smart" and that is the only thing that stood out about me.
Still, I was glad to be done. I remember looking at the four years of college I had ahead of me. That was going to take FOREVER! I was so ready to get started!
My experiences were few, and I was ready to build up my portfolio! I wanted to see everything and take part in things I had never done. I wanted to stay out later than 11 pm! I wanted to eat sushi! I wanted to have an intellectual discussion at a coffee shop!
I did all of those things, and more!
Those years absolutely FLEW by. I learned a lot in college. More outside of the classroom than in. More about myself than about my major. I treasure the memories and the friends that I made. I remember feeling like the world was so much bigger than the walls of my stupid 5A high school. I remember feeling the potential impact that my life could have.
When I stop today and look at my life, those are the years that I love. I wish the best to that cousin. I hope that she pauses and takes a breath. The next years go fast. And after that, they just keep getting faster.
Carpe diem!
I remember how GLAD I was to be done. High school has got to be one of the hardest times for a person. There are so many cliques, so many mean comments, so many insecurities. It sounds like I was some lame, inferior, picked-on-kid, but I wasn't. I was pretty average in most things, but I was "smart" and that is the only thing that stood out about me.
Still, I was glad to be done. I remember looking at the four years of college I had ahead of me. That was going to take FOREVER! I was so ready to get started!
My experiences were few, and I was ready to build up my portfolio! I wanted to see everything and take part in things I had never done. I wanted to stay out later than 11 pm! I wanted to eat sushi! I wanted to have an intellectual discussion at a coffee shop!
I did all of those things, and more!
Those years absolutely FLEW by. I learned a lot in college. More outside of the classroom than in. More about myself than about my major. I treasure the memories and the friends that I made. I remember feeling like the world was so much bigger than the walls of my stupid 5A high school. I remember feeling the potential impact that my life could have.
When I stop today and look at my life, those are the years that I love. I wish the best to that cousin. I hope that she pauses and takes a breath. The next years go fast. And after that, they just keep getting faster.
Carpe diem!
posted by Amanda
at
9:03 PM
5 Comments:
you should write these words in a letter to her - i bet she'd like that! :)
Good idea, Jes!
I wasn't a fan of high school either. But then, I'd moved so much during my childhood that by the time I got to Jr High in Nac, I was a skeered little mouse of a girl and that didn't really go away till I moved to Big D.
Years fly by no matter what you're doing in life. I can't believe I've been married 2 years to Heath already. I can't believe our daughter is about to be a year old!
Carpe Diem is right, lil sista! :)
High school was an awkward time for me too, but I was really sad when it was over because I knew that never again would those friends and people be assembled in the same place together again, and while there were vertainly difficulties with it, there were a lot of good times and good friends too . . .
But I was never one for major change, and that's what graduation is at the base of it: moving on.
course, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the moving part would be so literal for me! Always thought I'd stay in PA forever . . .
Anyway, I especially enjoyed this post, even if it is making me nostalgic!
;)
I think most people have mixed feelings about their high school years. The main thing I miss about those times was the fact that I had very little responsibility. Wish I'd appreciated that back then!
I left high school and I never looked back. 10 year reunion has come and gone. I didn't have a desire to go back... so I didn't. Like you, I wasn't picked on... just an average person. But wouldn't go back if my life depended on it.
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