Lessons I Learned in High School
1. Find a hobby to help destress
As someone who overthinks about a lot of stuff, trying to clear my head really helps me bring myself back down to earth. At the beginning of high school, I thought I had my de-stress techniques down but I do not think they were efficient enough. My hobbies for destressing are either art or working out. With art, I have been bullet journaling for over 5 years and that keeps me organized and allows me to do some fun art and create things that make me happy. You have to be mindful of your time with it so you don't waste a lot of it, but take a moment to breathe and clear your mind with your hobbies to not drown in school work.
2. You have control over your mentality on your appearance, life, and choices
Your mentality in situations will allow you to move forward in life and not be stuck in situations in the past. I used to shut down in the moment of races or a class period before a test because I was so nervous and tired. But when you look at your whole life, a 45-minute test is such a small part of it. All you can do is try and prepare your best prior to it and then try your best on the test. Even if you don't get the grade that you want, you have to accept it and be proud of the fact that you tried your best. As for your mentality with appearances, please please please realize that so many expectations of women and how they should look is a standard created by men and people that have gotten work done to look "naturally beautiful". If you are taking care of yourself by living a healthy lifestyle, do not be concerned about the judgment of others. It is how YOU feel and how YOU take care of yourself. Feel comfortable in your own skin and your own clothes. I personally have so much fun with clothes because it is a way that I express myself artistically and I actually got told I have the "best shoe game" by someone in my Calculus class.
3. It is important to be informed and aware of what is going on
When I became an upperclassman, though even as a sophomore too, I was surprised by how much I talked about current events happening in the world with my teachers and my classmates. I will state below that I have actually lived through some...interesting times, but being informed about what is happening in the world around me was important to me. We had this assignment every Monday in my AP Language class, where you had to find an article and state the message and techniques used. My teacher offered resources to help us identify if a news source was reliable and she also guided us to stay away from biased new sites. I always found it interesting to learn and share different articles with my class at the time, and afterward, I made it a priority to be informed about the current events. I think it is important to be aware of what is happening around you and in the room where it happens because the decisions that leaders and people make now will affect you and your family today, and in the future. During COVID and the 2020 election, I think it was especially important to be aware of what was going on, but then again, it is important to not drown yourself with the news. That can be damaging to your mental health.
4. I have been through some shit so I know that I can get through more in the future.Let me break this down:
Freshman Year: Hurricane Harvey
Sophomore Year: The peak of the March of Our Lives (anti-school shooting movement)
Junior Year: COVID-19
Senior Year: COVID-19 and the Deep Freeze/Texas Energy grid failure
I think it is safe to say that my high school experience was not "normal" and not "good". Of course, I have lots of good memories, but if we were to look at it as a whole, my class and my generation (especially in Houston?? Like what on earth do y'all have against the class of '21?) have had a lot to deal with in a short amount of time. The stress of one event compiled with the normal stress of being a student made moments in high school tough, especially when some adults held us to the same expectations as if times were normal. Here is the deal though, I am graduating with pretty good stats under my belt, I have achieved a lot both academically and athletically in 4 years and through the chaos of it all. That is why when I experience tough times, I have to adjust my perspective and realize that one little test is not going to destroy me. I am going to continue to try my best and be happy with it. Don't get me wrong, I would love not to have some more "once in a lifetime" events occur in my life, I got a full house of those in my hands and I want to shuffle the cards to give them away.
5. I am not a lot of people's first choice, and that's okay.
This one was the most difficult lesson to overcome because for a long time I didn't want to accept it. Coming into freshman year after a hurricane flooded my city and disrupted the beginning of our school year, I really wanted to be accepted and included by my classmates. I tried making new friends, and I struggled to find my place. This is a pretty normal circumstance for a freshman, yet it continued into sophomore year. I have friends and people that I enjoy spending time with, yet I never really found a permanent friend group. I had friends in their own groups of theater kids, choir kids, and even our own swim group. It is hard to put this into words without sounding like I have no friends, I do, and I am grateful for their presence in my life. But when I am spending my Saturday nights in my room and then I go onto social media and see my friends having study groups, birthday parties, and just simple get-togethers, it would hurt. People who I thought I was close with, or who I would consider being one of my close friends, wouldn't invite me to hang out. That is actually why I deleted Snapchat towards the end of freshman year, I would cry on the weekends about the FOMO and wonder why no one was inviting me to hang out. The biggest thing that I couldn't wrap my head around was people telling me that I am so kind and that they liked to hang out with me and loved it when I invited them to my parties, yet I was always the one who initiated the movement of spending time together. I was always the one asking people if they wanted to come over or if they wanted to get coffee, and so on. Maybe that was the issue of not belonging to a clear group and just being independent. During the quarantine months of 2020 and early of my senior year, I came to the realization that I was actually not anyone's first pick. Meaning that when it came to inviting people to events, study groups, or last-minute hangouts, I was not the first or even the second on the list for a lot of people....and that is okay. I am not supposed to be everyone's best friend, and I have just not found my best friend yet. Yes, it hurts to see people hang out when I am friends with all of them, and yes, it lowkey sucks when I talk to people and they spend the whole time talking about other people and how great their other friend is. But I am glad that I have people who are kind to me and enjoy talking with me. I will find that person or crew
who will treat me like their number one in the future.
It is crazy to think that tomorrow is my last day of high school. Senior year is ending in an avalanche and it is sorta ending kinda abruptly. I am excited for the new experiences and things I will learn when I head off to college in the fall, it is just crazy that my high school years are finally over. Well, I leave my words with you, young ones, I hope high school treats you well when I am gone.
Faretheewell,
sincerely,
yo girl emilia.
Follow me on Instagram: @yogirlemilia
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