The other day I realized I?m growing up. You probably think I?m stupid for just realizing that, but try to recall your own age. If you?re like me it probably took you a few seconds to remember your age. You?re probably somewhere around two decades ? a fifth of a century. I didn?t realize the extent of my age until the other day when I saw a flyer advertising a karaoke bar and it said, ?Must be 18+ to enter.? After seeing those words I immediately I thought to myself, ?Man, I wish I was old enough for stuff like that.? Wait. What am I talking about? I?m nearing 20, and for some reason I feel like I?m still stuck at 16.
What I want to know is, what ever happened to the years of 16, 17 and 18? Did high school even happen?
After I asked myself these questions I started rehashing my teen years, and I realized that I?m actually glad I am that high school is over.
Yes, there were some fun memories, living at home was pretty cool, everything seemed to be free and classes were a lot easier, but I was also haunted with all the reasons why high school is where is should remain ? in the past. For everyone who has or will experience high school denial, let me point out a few reasons why college is much better than high school.
Popularity Pains. Raise your hand if you were mister or miss. popular in high school. Yeah, that?s what I thought. Most of us were in the ?B? crowd. Let?s face it ? in high school, social status basically could make or break you. Most of us were average kids like me. However, I must admit I loved seeing the girls in my school who thought they were the best thing that ever happened to Maryland suburbia.
Every high school has those girls. At my school they decided it would be a good idea to form groups and have trendy names: The Jew Crew, The Cult and The Clan. Now, when you hear those names you probably think they were bloodthirsty gangs terrorizing the halls of my high school, but don?t be fooled. The Crew, Cult and Clan were just groups of rich girls with matching SUVs and pastel North Face fleeces. Looking back, these girls really meant no harm, but they give me one more reason not to miss high school.
Skipping class is considered an unforgivable sin. Isn?t it funny how the word ?attendance? used to scare us? I realize now how hard it was to skip a class in high school when everyone and their mother seemed to notice when you took a double lunch period or decided that going to 7-11 for a Slurpee was more important than Geometry class. Here at college it almost seems as if we should just be addressed by our nine-digit student ID numbers instead of our real names. Do you think the professor of your 500-person lectures knows you never go to class? You?ve paid your money and been granted the right to attend class, so practice it.
Curfew? You?ve got to be kidding me. I must say curfew was the bane of my existence in my high school days. For most of you it was probably midnight, or 2 a.m. if your parents were cool. My curfew was eleven o?clock. Imagine having to peace out of every social situation at 10:45 to drive home (going the speed limit).
The football was lame. I don?t think I ever watched a single football game at my high school. I was too busy giggling by the concession stand because I thought the boy I had a crush on had just said a very passive ?what?s up?? to me, when I would later find out it was directed towards my best friend and not me. In high school you don?t go to the football games to watch, you go to be seen, and everybody knows that.
So where does that leave us now? Are we just old, deadbeat college kids? Hear it from me, college is the best years of our lives. College is the place where popularity doesn?t exist. It?s the place where the high school spelling-bee champion can be cool and being the high school quarterback doesn?t automatically make you admired. There?s no curfew or attendance to hold us down, for we are independent peoples. And our football team wins championships and we are all there to see it happen. So let?s be happy we are growing up and appreciate the four (or five or six) years we have here, because the truth is we aren?t getting any younger.
