High school definitely was not a part of my golden years. I’m guessing my story is a bit different from everyone else’s. You always hear “this is the greatest time in your life, enjoy it because it goes by fast,” and that isn’t true at all. High school was pitiful and went by painfully slow.  

Getting into St. Joseph’s college was probably the greatest moment of my life. Not because I got into college but because I was finally moving on from high school. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating. High school wasn’t that bad. I made a lot of cool memories and met some people that I hope I’ll know forever. I didn’t have the time of my life here, but I wouldn’t go back and change a thing.  

It’s not me being a high school student that I’ll miss, it’s my childhood. As I grow older my childhood and innocent view on the world fades away. I used to want to be 18 so badly, and now that I’m here, it sucks. There’s no transition into young adulthood, either. It’s like my birthday comes and that’s it, childhood over. Like, wow, graduation! All that hard work and what do I get in the end? A diploma and sadness. 

I never participated in sports, I didn’t go to prom, I didn’t join any clubs and I had the same 3 friends all four years. I never explored myself and who I was. I never put myself in uncomfortable situations that made me grow. It’s like we’re all on a train that takes each age group to a certain “stop” or year in their life where they’ll experience something new and face a different obstacle until the next train comes. I must’ve got onto the wrong train or something because mine never moved, it stayed stationary for 3 years of high school and when it finally did move, my stop sucked. 

High school certainly has taught me many lessons. A couple of unexpected things happened but I learned a lot from all that happened. Advice I would give to my younger self is to be patient and become more comfortable with making new friends and spending more time alone. Don’t take things so personally, people perceive things differently from you and not everyone is out to hurt you. Communicate more and give people a chance. Don’t be so hard on yourself, mistakes are meant to be made and the mistakes you’re going to make will make you the person that you are today. 

Although high school wasn’t my favorite time of my life, it is bittersweet moving on from it. I first walked into this school thinking it was so big, scary and hard to navigate. Struggling to find my classes, to make it to each class before the bell and meeting up with friends in between classes and “spilling the tea.” I now leave this school thinking it’s not so big and scary after all. I guess I’ve grown up.  

Though my train stayed stationary for a while, it finally moved my last year here and when I got off, the obstacles I faced were unexpected. Walking across that stage on graduation day will signify that I beat those obstacles and learned what was meant for me to learn. Now I’m moving on to better things and ready to get on a new train. I’ll be taking those lessons with me as I go. Goodbye Brentwood High School. It was nice while it lasted. I still will not be coming back to visit though. It was nice but it wasn’t that nice. 

Sincerely, 

       Ruby Thomas