By Nashby Carbajal, Staff Writer
The average lifespan for a human is 79 years. High school is four years of that life. That means that our high school years are only 5 percent of our lives. When our phones are on 5 percent battery we freak out. Why? We freak out because we’re aware that it’s such a small amount of battery life we have left.
High school is a very small portion of our lives, and we need to realize this before we go on and make decisions that could affect the rest of our lives. The words “high school” could either bring back great memories or not so pleasant memories. Either way, they’re memories. Nothing else.
During these four years, many people face problems regarding their friends, boyfriends or girlfriends and their social status. This is called drama. Many worry about drama and make it their priority. They want to fit in so badly that they try to dress, talk and act like the ones they are trying to impress, not caring that they don’t feel comfortable and are not being themselves.
People end up taking drugs, getting drunk and hooking up with people in order to feel like they fit in. It’s a constant competition in high school to be better than the next person. But this should be a time for growing, maturing and finding oneself. Many people don’t find themselves until after high school which is why it doesn’t matter where you are on the popular pyramid. What matters is what you do with your life after.
Take the famous actor Zac Efron. In interviews, he has said that he was not a popular kid in school. He was a theater kid, very geeky and unattractive. Now he is very much a “heartthrob” for a lot of girls and popular across the country. Another person who became popular after high school is Steven Spielberg. He is one of Hollywood’s most successful movie directors and has money and popularity.
People now don’t tend to care whether these very successful people were popular in high school. They care about what they have to offer now and in the future. High school is the beginning of life; what counts is what you do with your life afterwards. A lot of people peak in high school and don’t do anything better afterwards, this includes the people who were popular in high school. Once you graduate high school, colleges and jobs don’t care whether or not you were a lame kid or a popular kid, they care about what you can do in “the real world.”
Whether you’re popular or not in high school won’t matter once you’re out. If the people you talk to now make you feel comfortable and happy, then that’s where you should be. Kissing up to people to be popular or feeling bad because you aren’t popular won’t help you. Worry about what you’re going to do with your life after these short four years and for the rest of your life, instead of what only counts now and will be swiftly forgotten. Enjoy high school your way, it’s a once in a lifetime experience, but it doesn’t foreshadow the rest of your life.