The Things I Will Miss About High School

Today would have been my last day of high school. June 26, 2020: a date I had been looking forward to since April 3, 2016. We had a virtual graduation on June 18th, but it didn’t give me the kind of closure I needed to realize that my time as a kid is pretty much over. School’s over and it’s time to adult. That’s exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. In this post, I wanted to highlight a few things I know I’ll miss about being a high schooler.

1. A fixed schedule and lunch breaks. My favourite thing about school, by far, has been having the same schedule for each day. Get to school at 9 AM and leave by 3:20 PM. And while in Toronto, I had the same classes every day as well. I got the taste of what university schedules might be like when I got a spare period this semester. It resulted in me leaving at 9 AM on some days and 10 on the others, which meant my schedule wasn’t identical every day. I had to adapt to it and remember two different bus schedules as well. In university, I’ll have either one 2-3 hours class for a course in a week, or two 1-hour classes, which means I won’t be touching every subject every day. And that means I will have to work harder on making sure I study a bit of each class every day to avoid the risk of forgetting what’s happening in a certain class. The fixed lunch breaks were a blessing as well. Every day, not only did I know there was time for me to eat and replenish lost energy, I knew I had an hour for sure to do any work I had to. My mock schedule for university has breaks unevenly spread out. One day I have 4 hours between two of my classes and one day, I’ll be running from one class to another without a break. Let’s hope my real schedule is better than my mock.

2. Getting to see my friends on a daily basis. Because of a fixed schedule, I met my friends every day and we always had lunch together. We had a lot of classes together, so it was easy to talk to them and make inside jokes and, overall, have a lot of fun. I’m not sure about how classes will be in university, but for the first semester of my first year, they are mostly online. And even when they become in-person, class sizes are going to be way bigger than high school. How do you communicate in a class of 200-1000 students? Even if you are sitting next to each other, it might not be a good idea to tune out the lecture for a piece of gossip XD.

3. Interactions with teachers and guilt-free dependence. The best part of smaller class sizes was the ability to interact a lot with my teachers. I rarely had to wait to ask a question after class and I always got thorough answers. On top of that, whenever an assignment got hard, I knew I could count on my teachers to help me clear up all my confusion. I sent them emails without any hesitation and utilized the private comment feature of Google Classroom to my advantage. I never felt guilty when asking for help because I knew my teachers were there to help us and they would like us to ask a lot of questions because that shows you understand the material enough to know what you don’t get. I’m nervous about how university professors are when it comes to asking questions and getting help on assignments. I do know there are TA’s available to help you, so I guess I’m going to confidently ask them for help.

4. The excitement of being a kid. High school is a place that tolerates a lot without too many consequences. Obviously, that doesn’t mean you should cause trouble, but some teachers still treat us like kids and it’s not always a bad thing. Even your homework isn’t too much if you know what you are doing. Everything about high school looks easy to me now that I’m done with it and from what I’ve heard, I can only wish for easy university classes. On top of everything, I turned 18 a couple of days ago, so the pressure of becoming an adult just got real. There is so much I have to learn and so much I have to do. If there’s one thing in this post you pay attention to, I want it to be this: live your life while you’re still in school. There are many things you still can’t do but make so many memories doing the things you can. Enjoy each and every moment while you still have the time to be mindful. And it wouldn’t be a bad thing to learn how to be mindful about things right now, so your adulthood doesn’t pass you by in the blink of an eye. I’m sure you can sense my jitters about growing up through the screen of your phone, but I also want you to know that becoming someone in this world is just as exciting as being a kid. So, cherish every moment of your childhood, good or bad, because they are going to help you become the person you want to be in the future.

I’m a little disappointed about not having a ceremony in June to cement the fact that school is over for us, but we do have a ceremony scheduled in December, and I sure as hell am looking forward to it. I guess this post was to help myself realize the changes I’ve been waiting for are here and, let me tell you, it feels good. One goal accomplished, several more to go. Have fun, stay home and stay safe. - Aarushi