What High school Taught Me

High school. A place many regards as hell on earth. At one point that was me. It teaches many lessons and helps develop many people into who they will become later in life, seeing as how it takes many from being a small immature child to hopefully a young productive adult. My years here were each different, having hallmarks that each made me into a better person and have contributed a large deal of how I am now. Of course, we all wanted different things, walking down the halls you'd always see the different types of people, cliques or not of jocks, goths, drama kids, nerds, groups of friends who cross all of those stereotypes. Most of us wished for it to be over sooner but once you get to the end you realize just how much of your life has already passed you by. 

Starting high school I wasn't even the same person, I went by the name "Spinto" and was a fairly weird, antisocial kid with some friends. We always played video games together because of course, we did. I was the slowest kid on the track team, and easily one of the worst soccer players. My grades were something of a second thought to me, never really considered them of any importance until my mom would ask me how my math grade was and we would check, have the obligatory talk about how I need to work harder. And until the end of 10th grade, we would have the same talks over and over and over again. My eighth-grade year I went through it with fair grades and fair effort, but for the most part, just cruising. Freshman year started off the same, pretty lackluster, low levels of effort despite the increasing difficulty. Generally, I was an A-C Student for that first year and a half.

Halfway through my freshman year, I went through a personal hardship, diving into a fit of depression that lasted quite about a year. During that time I don't actually really remember doing anything to try and be productive but I think my teachers could see something was wrong because the next year I actually jumped from zero to four honors classes. I was not great at those classes. About halfway through my sophomore year I took a hard hard look at myself in the mirror and decided something needed to change because track was just so painful and I knew my mom would keep forcing me to do it. 

So starting from then I decided I wanted to be someone who didn't slack in the warm-up mile as I had been doing every season before that. So I took it more seriously. Trying to keep up and run it faster every time. I was moved up in the team, proved myself to someone who wanted to really be there for the team, and also better myself. This was the start.

Next, I started trying to dress better, striving towards better grades, trying to be personable. But of course, this is just my experience. This post is meant to be about what I learned... so, what did I learn?

Be careful who you surround yourself with

There is an overwhelming amount of people at the majority of schools, most of these people, are going to be your acquaintances, low-level friends almost. You can usually tell what type of person people want to be based on how they carry themselves and move forward with their personal ethics. You don't want to be a shut-in with no friends though, so if you and someone connect, try to make that connection last. Be a good friend, check in when you get the chance, let people know they are important to you. 

Don't let a relationship entirely dominate your social life

When I got out of my long-term relationship, I realized just how much I hadn't been talking to my friends as they deserve. So I learned that it is so important to obviously pay your all relationships the respect they deserve. I had friends who I had stopped talking to for the most part telling me they felt hurt like I had dropped them, and that is in no fair way to treat people who care about me. 

Be yourself

I cannot stress enough just how important it is to realize that you are not here on this planet for anybody else but yourself, so own who you are. Be yourself in the most unapologetic way possible because who you are is the most important part of your identity obviously and other people will try to to put you down for it but that doesn't matter. Those are the kinds of people who won't find themselves as happy as you are in life by being yourself. 

You and only you are responsible for who you become

You have complete control of what you turn yourself into, if you find yourself unhappy with a part of your life, it is 100% up to you to make that change. Losing weight? do the research and drop the pounds. A friend always dragging you down? Cut them out of your life; it'll do you better in the end. No matter what anybody tells you, the decision will always be your own.