Letter To My High School Self: These Are Not The Best Four Years Of Your Life

Dear Asia,

This is possibly the worst thing anyone has ever said to you. And people have said some not nice things, but this, this. Oh, this. It toys with your head and makes you feel like you’re missing out on precious life when you’re not partying in the middle of a random field around a bonfire, when you’re not racing on fields on a dirt bike, when you’re not skipping class to do like whatever fun things people were doing when they skipped class. You keep thinking “This is what makes it the best four years of my life! And I’m missing out on it! My life is only going downhill from here!”

Oh GOOD GOD. I want to punch in the face whoever said that ages THIRTEEN TO SEVENTEEN are the best four years of a person’s life. Like GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK. 

Now. Don’t get me wrong. You’re having a great high school experience. I’m going to go ahead and spoil a few things for you (but I think you probably know they’re coming anyway): you’re going to win Prom Queen, you’re going to get really good grades and get to wear a sash at graduation, we’re going to win Valley and it’s going to be oh so fun. You’re going to have a truly all-American high school experience, sister, and you’re going to be like pretty happy with it but deep down you’re gonna be like okay, cool, so like, that’s it?

NO GOOD GOD IT IS NOT IT.

Ugh I am really fired up about this.

Asia, I'm talking to you. Don't put that camera down.

Asia, I'm talking to you. Don't put that camera down.

 

Let me list a hundred ways (okay, so only 42) life gets better after high school, and there may be some spoilers in there, but ya know, what? YOLO:

  1. You learn what YOLO means.
  2. You find better friends.
  3. I’m going to elaborate on that one, because it’s a big deal: You learn what having good friends look like, and what being a good friend looks like.
  4. You will never stop making new friends, because you no longer live in a tiny town, and people from all over the world will become your closest friends (be on the lookout for anyone named Audrey or Morgan or Jamie).
  5. You get better looking like every year (at least until you’re 26, which is at time of writing, we still have yet to go downhill in the looks department, praise Jesus).
  6. You make your own money.
  7. You spend your own money. And it’s mucho fun.
  8. You stop wearing knit sweaters (like not right away but eventually).
  9. You find your own style and rock it.
  10. Your cheeks stop looking like chipmunks (again, not right away, but eventualllyyyy).
  11. You will find out what you like to do for fun.
  12. You will find out that you weren’t missing out on anything by not attending drinking-in-fields-bonfires.
  13. You will get better at dancing.
  14. And because you are good at dancing, you become very cool and not be the non-party-attending girl anymore.
  15. You will be totally fine with not being the party-going girl.
  16. You will find people who LIKE WHAT YOU LIKE.
  17. You will learn that not all people who love Jesus only love country music and this is mind blowing.
  18. You grow your faith to epic proportions, and your trust in God will allow you to do GREAT things you would think are super scary right now (But actually end up super awesome because God is good.)
  19. You will start realizing you’re pretty.
  20. You will wear crop tops and no one will be able to get mad at you. Or threaten to suspend you or something weird.
  21. YOU CAN NOT GO TO CLASS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO.
  22. And you don’t even have to go to school every day. AND usually you never have class on Fridays.
  23. You figure out that wearing rain boots will solve all your rainy weather problems. Like wet pants? No longer.
  24. You dye your hair purple. Whaaaaa. So cool.
  25. You learn to speak several languages fluently! WHAAAA.
  26. You have no curfew.
  27. You drive a mucchhhh nicer car.
  28. You start taking prenatal vitamins and now your nails are no longer little stubs. They’re actually quite nice. And you learn to paint them.
  29. You figure out how to do your hair THANK GOD.
  30. You get to see the world.
  31. You decide to stop watching scary movies/CSI and this makes a lot of nightmares go away.
  32. You stop fighting with your mom because you’re not a total brat anymore.
  33. You will realize that life is what you make it. 
  34. You figure out that you do like roller coasters, just not the up and down ones, and you can finally start enjoying Six Flags.
  35. In general, you will realize you DON’T HAVE TO DO THINGS you don’t want to do (roller coasters, scary movies, house parties) and that changes everything.
  36. Like, you realize you don’t have to feel not cool because you don’t drink. You learn to love not drinking. 
  37. You eventually figure out exercises to make your knees not hurt, but it takes LITERALLY a decade, so don’t hold your breath, but I swear it’s coming.
  38. You will become super close to your sister, which makes life way more fun.
  39. People stop coming up to you and punching you in the middle of you doing normal life things. (Wait, just kidding, that still happens.)
  40. But for the most part, you have less haters because people grow up.
  41. You are going to live by the beach. By the beach in several countries.
  42. At a certain point you realize, the last 4 years of your life are always the best 4 years of your life. You realize that, you know what, it may not be that way for everyone, and it may not be that way forever, but up until time of writing, you are going to realize that you have the amazing capacity and God’s beautiful grace that allows life to be more and more exciting as time goes on. Each day, you figure out more of who you are, what you love, and you DO IT.


I’m so proud of you for taking advantage of these “best four years of your life”.

But don’t stress anymore, sister, they are good, for sure, but they just keep getting better.

Promise.

 


Asia CrosonComment