Let me cut right to the chase: I didn’t enjoy high school. Like, not one bit. Every day felt like a chore, and I’m not just saying that. I wasn’t taking classes I enjoyed, I didn’t like the competitive atmosphere that increasingly pervaded interactions between my friends—and I’m really just not a morning person at all.
Combine all three things (plus like, zero air-conditioning and disgusting water) and you’ll end up with a Very Miserable Tirzah.
But I suppose it would be unfair to place all the blame on the deeply flawed American education system and deplorable building conditions. I do have to take some responsibility myself and evaluate the decisions that I made that contributed to my lack of fulfillment these last four years.
Take, for example, the fact that I never skipped school a day in my life, or even just cut class and left early with some friends. Unless I was dying, or relatively close to it, I came to school. And that wasn’t because my parents wouldn’t let me stay home. It was because just the idea of missing school freaked the living bejesus out of me. So it just happened that I never took an extra day to myself to relax and just chill out instead of coming to school. Trust me, that’s enough to make anyone hate school.
I also avoided school pride like the plague—I’ve never been to a sports game, never painted my face for pep rally, never even been to a class fundraiser. I never attended a single school dance, not to mention the fact that I’m not going to prom. Any opportunity to see my classmates outside of school I immediately turned down. That’s not because I don’t like them. I just have bad memories associated with them (like being in a classroom with them. Shudder).
Besides pointing out what an antisocial loser I am, there’s a point to all this. And that is: don’t be like me. I may have a full wallet, but I have an empty heart. Use the time that you have to do things you like before it’s too late. I spent my entire high school career telling myself, “Oh, I’ll just go to Open Mic Night next month.” Well, that never happened. And now it’s too late. I’ll never be able to go to Open Mic Night, or a soccer game, or pep rally ever again. I’m leaving. Today is my last day. I’m never coming back. And I hope that you can learn from my experiences.
The number one thing I could tell you that I wish that I did is: put yourself out there. For the love of God, do things. Nothing is going to happen unless you make it happen yourself.
The best memories I have looking back are when I did things that scared the heebie-jeebies out of me. Sophomore and junior year, I plucked up the courage to speak at the student-run TEDx events. And though I stressed for weeks before both of the events, I’ll never forget how amazing it felt.
But by far the most rewarding experience at Dulaney for me has been working with the Griffin. Yeah, it may have made me want to scream and rip my hair out on a regular basis. But seeing the amazing work of so many people on paper in front of my own two eyes each month made me so emotional I’d almost cry all over the paper. (I didn’t, I swear.)
For me, I definitely regret not doing a lot of things. But the things that I did do were memories that I’ll cherish for the rest of my life (I know, gag alert). My final advice to you is this: Find your niche. Do what you love, and do some things that you don’t love. You got this, man. I believe in you.
See you on the worse side of average.