12 Rites Of Passage Before You Finish High School

So, the year is wrapping up and you're one step closer to sweet, sweet freedom - finishing high school. You start looking back and think to yourself that you had a pretty damn epic time at school over the last 13 years. You really did it all.

But did you?

There are certain rites of passage one must go through before they can officially say they've ended their schooling career. Can you safely say you've ticked all the boxes?

1. Get your licence

If high school is the last frontier before you experience the freedom of adulthood, then getting your L's is the first real taste of what it’s like.

No more planning your days and nights around the bus timetable, no more leaving the fifth friend behind because mum has to be in the driver’s seat and plenty more Maccas runs.

2. Obsess over something

Become obsessed with something. Anything. Photography, reading, rapping, dabbing, pogo-sticks, quantum physics, butterflies. Become way too good at a hobby. Become an expert at something completely obscure. I personally was unbeatable at Mario Kart.

3. Final exam ever

The best part of your final exams is easily the final ten minutes of your last exam ever. You still have plenty to write but your hand is starting to shake which is messing up your handwriting but it’s getting harder and harder to care because you’re just so close to finally finishing forever so you just sit there excitedly scribbling down barely legible bullcrap which probably won't improve your mark but who cares you're nearly there and then ALL OF A SUDDEN it's pens down and you and your mates are FREEEEEE.

4. Get a crappy job

Listen to ya parents and get a job. Do a crap job for crap pay with crap coworkers and crap customers. If it's genuinely that bad, then maybe look for a different job.

Make workmates, laugh at your mistakes and chat trash about your boss. Get customer's orders wrong and watch them give you deathies from their seat. Get a rubbish job and let that inspire you to do something great with your life.

5. Save up for something

Get through your high school job by saving up for something you've always wanted. It could be anything - a new guitar, a Playstation 12, a car, dance class, a flight for schoolies.

For the first time ever, you have the freedom to spend a serious amount of money however the hell you want. Discard your parent's advice and buy something stupid. Even if you regret it, you won't regret it then.

6. Muckup day

Ooooooh muckup day, what a time to be alive! The Year 12's in years before you have probably turned this day into the stuff of legends, with stories of students running wild, meticulously planned pranks and just general hysteria.

While you do deserve your muckup day, remember to be respectful. Keep your pranks within your year, and leave the Year 7s and the teachers out of it. Remember that "but it was muckup day" doesn't actually count as a legitimate excuse for your actions. If you think that that takes all of the fun out of it, then you're not being creative enough.

7. The school formal

How good is donning a nice suit or a dress with ya crew and celebrating in style? Who brought a date, who didn't, who is a surprisingly good dancer and who was expectedly bad? Is there a photo booth? And don't forget the biggest question of all - where's the afterparty?

8. Genuinely thank your favourite teachers

This one you won't regret. There's a good chance that at least one of your teachers has changed the way you think about the world. If you're not too certain, have a think about it. Were there any standouts?

You don't have to get them a gift (though I'm sure they wouldn't say no to one), but a heartfelt, tear-inducing 'thank you' could be more than enough to reassure them that they're making a difference.

9. Takes heaps of photos

The school yearbook will only go so far. Get out ya camera or ya phone or whatever it is, and start making memories. No matter how good your memory is, a 1000GB hard drive full of photos is probably better.

10. Become an inventor

Get creative. Come up with new ways to procrastinate, invent new games to play at lunch, improve the system at the canteen so the lines move faster. Make your school experience unique and improve that of others.

11. Pull an all-nighter

Leave everything to the last minute, freak out, have a stress attack, stock up on sugary snacks, then pump out everything in one brutal push. If you learn from your mistakes, then it should be your first and last all-nighter ever - but when does that ever actually happen?

12. Schoolies

I know this one is technically after you finish high school, but they’re so closely related that it definitely counts as a rite of passage on your path to freedom. In fact, it’s probably the last rite of passage.

Hit the road (or the airways) with ya mates and let off some steam in whatever manner you like. Who am I to judge?