Life Lessons I Learned from High School

1. If you're going to do something halfway, you might as well not do it at all.

Seriously, don't do it. Being simply okay at everything is not nearly as amazing as being super great at one thing. It's much better if you're amazing at one thing. I tried to be editor of the school's yearbook and officer on our dance team at the same time. I wasn't as good an officer or editor. It wasn't worth it. Don't do things halfway.

2. Your attitude is a choice.

You choose how you feel about something. Personally, I choose to be positive. Even when things go absolutely awful, I can choose to be positive. There was this one day where I was late to school, had to take a really hard test that I thought I failed, dropped and cracked my phone, and it was raining, but I was okay. True, I could've spent the whole day upset with myself for being late and not studying more, angry about my phone, and bitter because of the rain, but that wasn't going to change the situation. I'm not even saying to find the positive in a situation because to this day, it's tough to tell you the positive of that day, I'm simply saying that being bitter about what's already happened isn't worth it. Instead, choose your attitude, and choose to be positive.

3. Even if everyone else is doing drugs, don't do them.

For some reason, people think that being in high school (ESPECIALLY senior year) is like a right of passage to do drugs (I include underage drinking in this "do drugs" category). I don't know why. All i know is that the number of people that I know who drink and do drugs has increased exponentially in the last four years to the point where I can literally make a list of people I'm friends with who don't drink, and it'd probably not even take up a whole page. It's sad that so many people think drinking and drugs are okay, but YOU DON'T HAVE TO JOIN THEM. I'm friends with people who drink, and they don't pressure me. You just have to be upfront with how you feel. I won't even be around drinking because I think it's wrong, so people don't drink around me. If I'm around, they'll generally avoid it. If they don't, I leave, and if they plan on drinking, I don't get invited. I still have plenty of friends. Furthermore, my closest friends, who also don't drink or do drugs, and I have more fun. I hear stories from weekends that I was not invited to, and I simply laugh at how stupid they sound. Drinking causes a lapse in judgment and people do things that they wouldn't otherwise do. I can assure you that my weekend where we played mini golf at Adventure Landing and then went to Chili's for skillet queso and lava cake was much more fun than their drunken party where some people hooked up and everyone is a bit hazy on the details. Listen to your elementary guidance counselor: drinking and drugs is NOT WORTH IT.

4. Don't let other people define you.

If you let other people's judgments define you, you will be unhappy. You cannot please everyone. Everything I'm saying right now is super cliche, and you're probably rolling your eyes. These things are cliche because they're true. Everyone says them because they're true. People are going to judge you. You can be the most awesome person in the whole wide world, and you will be judged. As long as you know that you're stinkin' awesome, it shouldn't matter. 

5. Resilience... again.

I've now gone to 3 school dances, but I have not been asked to any of them. I've had to ask a date myself 3 different times because no one asked me, and that was hard. In my school, people get asked to dances in really cute, all out ways, and I have yet to experience that. I also don't expect to be asked to prom (this is not me being down on myself, this is me being realistic. I'm really okay with it. I promise. I'm over it). Around school dances, I would become an emotional wreck, freaking out about not being asked. It was not fun, but I would ask someone myself and still have a great time at the dance. I once again, had to learn to be resilient and not let these obstacles and hardships get me down.  Life is hard, and not being asked to a school dance is not a big deal. Life gets much harder, and I can't let life stop me.