My oldest nephew started high school the other day. He’s a great kid, super cute, loves his cousin Courtney, and is just a joy to be with (then, I don’t live with him so his mom may disagree). He recently went through the process of looking at high schools, spending the day at them, applying and deciding where to go. It’s kind of like applying to go to college, stressful but so exciting. I remember when I went through that, it was such an exciting and scary time.
I know I said a couple of weeks ago (or maybe it was last week, can’t remember) that I have a terrible memory, but I seem to remember more things from high school than any other time. I loved high school. Loved, loved, loved it! I had to go through the same process my nephew did, looking at schools and trying to decide where to go. I was a bit of a trouble maker in middle school and I was all set to go to the public high school and travel down the wrong path. I’d been lying to my parents, hanging out with the bad kids, and generally being a pain in the ass (I was 13 though and that was my purpose on this planet – to drive my parents nuts).
My parents decided that maybe I needed to look at private schools in order to get my crap together and get away from those devil friends of mine. The first school we went to look at was an all girls school, I thought my mom was smoking the crack rock. There was no way in hell I was going to spend the next 4 years with girls. Just girls. Was she high? And to my total shock and amazement, I loved it.
It turns out that I got into my first choice school, it was about 20 minutes from where I grew up. It was a boarding school but I was a day student – the best of both worlds: girls during the week, boys could be seen on the weekends. Oh, and I got a home cooked meal at night.
I remember that first day like it was yesterday though. I was sitting in the lobby of the main building and all these people were moving in. I felt so alone, I felt like I’d made a huge mistake. I knew one person there but she was a junior and she definitely didn’t feel the need to show me around, introduce me to people. The boarding students had instant friends, they had roommates to bond with and get to know. I had no one. So I sat there, in the corner on the couch when this blond girl came in and sat near me. We got to talking, it turned out she was a day student too. Her name was Sarah and we were instant friends, the best of friends for the next 4 years.
Those 4 years were probably the most formative years in my life. I learned who I was and how to be a strong and independent young woman. I learned about hard work and what it really meant to study. I learned that I could do anything I wanted, be whomever I wanted to be. They were the happiest times, I loved it all. Often times people say there’s no way they would go back and do high school again but I would, in a heart beat. They were really the best of times.
I hope my nephew loves his school and takes advantage of everything it has to offer. I hope he makes the best of friends and has a great time in the process. Those 4 years only come around once and you don’t get them back. I hope to live vicareously through him, and my kids later. If I can’t go back and go to high school again, these kids are going to have to do it for me.
