28 Jan 2018

High school: it’s a strange time for everybody. A time of constant experimentation and discovery, of acting this way with one person and that way with another, of trying on all these different hats in an attempt to figure out where you belong. For some reason, you feel like you’re the only one fumbling your way through and that everyone else around you has it all worked out. But the truth is everyone is in the same boat, just trying to get through the day without falling flat on their face outside the science lab.

At the time, everything that happens in high school seems so sharp and significant. You’re constantly being told that the decisions you make now will influence the course of your entire life- the grades you get, the friends you keep, the mistakes you make. You’re in the “formative years” where the “foundations” are being built. You’re finding our “who you are” and “what it all means”.

Well I’m here to tell you that’s just not true.

Sure, you’re probably finding out a lot about yourself in these years. But they in no way have to define you. What you do in high school doesn’t have to have any influence over how you live the rest of your life–in actual fact, it rarely does. The end of school is really just a beginning- a chance for you to start fresh, forget what came before and change the parts of your life that need a bit of an upheaval.

Just because you were weren’t the most popular person or the most social person in school, doesn’t mean you’ll always be a part of the downtrodden. The world is full of bizarre, beautiful and brilliant people who are just waiting to meet you and change your life. And all of that drama, stereotyping and stress won’t matter in the real world. Plus, I can assure you from personal experience that one day you will be a lot better off then your peers who seemed like they ‘had it all’ in high school, and you will get your time in the sun to gloat (hello high school reunions).

Maybe you struggled your way through the academic side of high school? You were constantly asking for extensions on assignments, and Shakespearian prose sounded like gibberish to you. Year 12 was a hard year and no matter how much you did (or didn’t) try, the results never turned out the way you wanted. But now you’re free of the school curriculum, and there’s so many other education options available to you, many of which could suit your learning style a lot better. And if your sights are set a little higher, then with the help of pathway programs, you’ll still be able to go to uni and study a degree no matter what your final marks looked like.

I’m not saying you need to forget about what you did in high school. Acknowledge it, but then see it only for what it’s worth: something that happened to you, not something that defined you. And then learn from it. Make it better. There’s literally no better time than after high school to start something new.

If getting into university is what you wish you could change about high school, then Western Sydney University’s The College is exactly what you need. The College offers heaps of pathway courses into Western Sydney University degrees, no matter what your Year 12 grades were–or if you never made it to Year 12 at all. Whether it’s engineering, business, nursing or IT, there are plenty of opportunities to complete a diploma and get back on track to achieving the goals you didn’t quite reach in school. Suss all the information right here, and don’t let high-school-you hold you back.