When we think about school, some of us melt into a nervous spiral of worry, doubt, and stress. High school is indeed stressful, and there is a lot that happens when we are High school students. We learn, we grow, we fail, and we succeed. I have learned a lot of lessons through my time here at high school, but I think the most important is one that most people would not consider to be tough. In fact, I think most people would not even consider this a lesson because it does not align with their end-goal. The toughest lesson I have learned is: to enjoy high school. It was has been a long time coming, and I want to share why.

For most people, there are three things that matter most at school: grades, social standing, and image. The key difference is social standing being what people think of you and image being how you look. These are all indeed important aspects, but we now allow them to drown us and choke us. We become stressed with one bad test grade, or we become stressed with how one singular person views us. I know in the past I have said that your individual grades do matter because they contribute to the overall picture of your high school GPA. But, in the actual long run that one individual test grade does not matter. Thirty years from now, you will not remember what grade you on that math test or what grade you even got in that class. What you will remember is who your teacher was and how they made you feel. Not what they said to you, but how they made you feel.

Grades in the long-run of life do not mean as much as we all think. If you want to go to NC State or UNC, in the short-term run, grades do matter. But the difference in short-term and long-term is distinct. Short-term things are objects or concepts that will last you for a few years. This most distinctive concept is grades. Your high school grades don’t matter beyond high school. They DO NOT matter upon your graduation day. Long-term objects or concepts are things that you have done that will last you a life-time. By far my most long-term concept I have completed is Eagle Scout. This is something that will last you a life-time.

Another concept that will last you a life-time? Memories from key points in your life. High school is a key point in your life. You get a driver’s license, you get a job, but most importantly you become independent. Would you rather look back to your high school career and think, “Dang, I have no memories of anything fun when I was in high school.” And how would your past-self feel? I wish I had hung out with my friends, instead of staying in that night to study. What would mean more to you? Doing well on a test or enjoying a Saturday night? That is a question you must answer for yourself. My entire point is this: enjoy the moment. Don’t worry about your grades every day, or attempt to justify your intelligence from numbers. Grades mean nothing in terms of intelligence. There are people with 4.5 GPA’s who have no idea how to use a plunger. Enjoy the moment, and don’t let a number define your intelligence.

We constantly worry about what other people think of us. But, does this actually matter? Go home and ask your parents sometime how many people they still talk to, on a regular basis from high school, and then ask them the amount of people they still talk to at all from high school. I am willing to bet money they talk to no more than five people from high school. Once you graduate high school, you will most likely no longer talk to, or see the majority of people you talked to in high school. Even some of your friends. You will only keep the people who are really good friends in your corner. From there though, it’s the effort you make. Do you actually make an effort to talk to that person? Otherwise, they just fade off. Ten years from now, 99.9% of the people you talked to in school you no longer will. It does not matter what those people think of you, what matters is your success, and how you define success. This ties into my last point.

Be comfortable with how you look. Do not worry about what other people think about your looks. “30 years from now it won’t matter what shoes you wore, how your hair looked or what jeans you bought; what will matter is what you learned and how you used it.” This is one of the most popularly cited quotes before, and you have probably seen it in a teacher’s class room before. This quote is so true. What matters in life is what you learn and how you use it. Not how you look, not your grade, and not what people think of you. It is what you learned, and how you used it.

Overall, I think people should just enjoy high school and their time here. It goes by so quick, and after all only four short years you will be on to the next chapter of your life. Do not let is disappear by being caught up in all the little things. Enjoy it.