So there I was, standing in the hallway, having just exited my sophomore Algebra II teacher’s third floor room. Another make-up test over that didn’t go half as well as I had hoped it would. Well, story of my life. I had never been a great math student. In first grade, my mom used to playfully tease me that I would still be counting on my fingers in high school. And when I ran out of fingers, I would use my toes. Well, so far, my situation hadn’t become THAT dire. But I’m not saying that I’m going to become a mathematician in the near future, either. So as I thought about my mathematical woes, I trudged down the hall to the staircase, where there was sometimes a hope of just a bar of cell phone service so I could call my mom for a ride home. As I walked down the stairs to the landing between the first and second floor, schoolbag on my shoulder, hands sweaty from gripping the pencil so tightly during my make-up test, I heard the sounds of sneakered feet running in the halls on the floor level below. Probably the indoor track team practicing, I remember thinking to myself. I looked out the window in the stairwell landing and watched a pair of students exit the building and begin their walk home. And then, I’m not sure if it was seeing the students or hearing the running, but for some reason, a feeling of nostalgia washed over me. Nostalgia about high school. I thought back to the stories my mom and dad had told me about their high school experiences. I remember being a kid hearing these stories and imagining what high school would be like when I was in it. I based these mental pictures on the stories I had heard from my parents and also the movies I had seen that contained high school settings. Basically, before I was a ninth grader, I imagined high school to be a period in my life spent mostly in the hallways and partially in classrooms, complete with spitballs, writing assignments that everyone would complain about but finish easily, and a few simple sheets of homework a night. I imagined having an awesome social life on the weekends where friends and I would go to local hotspots or hang out at the home football games.
As I reflect on these long-lost imaginings, I realize that I was sorely wrong. First of all: simple homework assignments?! Give me a break! Short classes? Fat chance. Those classes can go on forever. A great social life? Not exactly. Although I’ve had many a fun time at home football games, I’ve spent far more weekends staying home and working on projects or studying for the next big test.
But still. Standing in the stairwell brought back those cheerful high school daydreams that floated around in my mind the summer before freshman year. I realized then that although high school hasn’t been the breezy ride I’d always thought it would be, it’s been special in its own way –and dare I say it –but sometimes fun, too. Sure, I never enjoy a minute of the homework or tests, but there are moments of the new school experience that I actually like. Such as eating lunch around one of the round cafeteria tables, talking and laughing with friends, getting all the latest gossip. And then there are those certain classes that you just can’t wait to go to –such as Latin where you have a ball playing Scrabble and building models of ancient Roman architecture. Heck, even translating ancient scripts is fun, too! And science class, where you secretly feel so cool using the Bunsen burners to heat up whatever mixture your lab procedure directs you to concoct. And English, where one day you sit in a huge discussion circle talking about Frankenstein and actually have fun! And you have to admit –sometimes even the drama of the popular people can be amusing. Remember, I said sometimes.
So as I stood there in the stairwell, thinking about all these things, I realized high school wasn’t as bad as I kept making it out to be. And, at the time, with my sophomore year nearly finished, I realized that this chapter of my life was already half over. In two years I would go on to a whole new chapter –college. And that was the reason for the nostalgia. I realized then that I would really miss high school once it ended. Sure, it can be stressful at times. Like in math class, where you’d rather stab yourself with a sharp pencil seventeen times than take another quiz. Or at five o’clock in the morning finishing up the paper you’ve been working on all night that’s due in a few hours. (It was 5:17 to be exact and the paper was for AP U.S. History-although that was just one of the many all-nighters). So even though high school can be really demanding at times, it can also be a fun experience that you won’t be able to relive once those four years are up. And as bizarre as it seems to us now, many people do wish to relive it.
So now, as I approach my senior year, I have decided that this year I am going to live by three simple rules. Rule #1: Live in the moment and don’t stress too much. Rule #2: Don’t wish your high school career away. And finally, rule #3: Have fun and enjoy the ride. It’ll be over before you know it.