High School - noun
A school attended after elementary school, or junior high school and usually consisting of grades 9 or 10 through 12.


Okay, so maybe that defines the word high school, but it really does nothing to define what high school is. So, what is it? If you ask most older people in your lives, they will tell you high school is the best years of your life. I really hope that’s just bulls*** because if this really is as good as it gets, I may as well just off myself now. These same adults seem to be rather misinformed of the problems teens are facing in high school. They seem to think our biggest problems consist of pop quizzes, and waking up at 7 am. They don’t see the real problems. Drugs, peer pressure, and the fact that 80% of the people in your life are just keeping you around to use you. So please, tell me these are not the best years of my life, but rather that they’re what everyone has to survive to get to the good years.


So, in the long run, what is highs school? A place about learning to become another sheep in society. I can dress how I want, but I can't wear certain colors. I could ask any guy out in the school, but there's a good chance he'll say no. I could spend my time trying to become popular, but then I sink to the same level as them. I could do drugs, and get them, in no time flat, and still get away with it. Whatever I want, I can get. But what’s the point? Insubordinance is met with cruel discipline. We are put through tests that are meant to make us think and retain knowledge, but they only test us on cumulative knowledge. Basically, you really don't learn anything new, but rather repeat everything you learned in elementary school until you can do it in your sleep. But the worst part of high school, is the fact that no matter how much you try to find out who you are, express new ideas and try to steer away from everyone else; you are ridiculed to the point of changing your ideas, morals and beliefs to fit in, masking yourself to fit in, or down right filling the school with bullet holes, screaming ‘F*** them all.’



So, what are you really learning in high school? Because we all know that no one is learning anything that they are supposed to be. We learn how to hold our booze, how to throw a punch, and how to mend a heart. Let’s face it most life lessons can be learned in some form before we get the piece of paper that gives us freedom from this hellhole. And when you do leave, the things you will remember will not come off a chalkboard, or out of a text book. The lessons you will take with you forever have nothing to do with academics. You will not remember how to put French verbs in the past tense, and you will not remember what in the hell stoicheometry is. But you will remember every party, every concert, every person who hurt you, every person you hurt, and every person who helped you survive it all. The classes you take will not shape you into the person you become after high school, but the things you learn outside of class will affect you forever.


But still, 90% of us are destined to become those adults, shoving education down our children’s throats. As much as I hate hearing these are the best years of my life, it gives me hope that as I get older, I may actually believe it. In the long run, everyone has to go through it, it’s just another thing that we have to survive. So you can smile about it, learn what you can, and appreciate the opportunity to not work in spatula world for the rest of your life. Or you can resent it, drop out, and be asking ‘Do you want fries with that?’ for the rest of your working career.