03 Jul 2016

High school is like living under what seems like a humongous dome (like the one in ‘Under the Dome’–that show that no one actually watched). It’s a fake real life that feels real when you’re in there and tiny and ridiculous once you break out.

When you’re inside it, you’re protected and secure. You know you have to wake up at 8am to get to school by 9am. You know you get to go home at 3:20pm.

You haven’t really made a decision about it ever–your parents chose your primary school for you, they probably had a big influence on your choice of high school and someone in a Department somewhere chose your classes. All you have to do is show up.

In high school, you don’t have to think about dressing yourself every day. You simply do it. School uniforms are an underappreciated blessing. Everyone’s in the same drab grey/blue/green/maroon. You can wear the same skirt/shorts every day for a month and no one will know. You can set your alarm as late as possible and still be ready in time.

Though you were excited when you were finally able to drop P.E. in Year 10, it wasn’t really a choice. You may get the chance to pick your own subjects, but it’s only from a select pool of options. When high school ends, you have to make your own important decisions every day–am I going to university? Where? Will I travel? Get a job? Can I afford to fix my smashed iPhone screen yet? Do I even want to get out of bed today?

I’m finding the scariest thing about not being in school anymore is the looming prospect of having to work every day for the rest of my life. School is fine–it’s six hours evenly split into different subjects, five days a week. You get weekends and amazing holidays (and even better ones in uni).

I had the horrifying thought the other day that I have no scheduled fortnight break to look forward to after ten weeks studying. I don’t get two months off to do literally nothing over summer. It’s just forever and our generation is probably going to have to retire later, or not at all (cheers, Baby Boomers). Cherish your holidays while they last, for real. Because if this is what being an adult is like, it’s kind of upsetting and I’m not really looking forward to it at all.

Now, I’m not saying that school is the best time in everyone’s life. I know it can be tough. Your school-related, friend-related, boy/girl/both/neither-related problems are not meaningless. You might look back in a few years and wonder why you ever got so angry, or upset, or worried, but that doesn’t invalidate the fact that they were important while they were happening. Don’t let people tell you that what you’re feeling isn’t valid. Just know that you will eventually make it past those problems. You will.

Here’s the thing. When you started school all those years ago, you were five years old. A tiny caterpillar. Thirteen years later, at the time of your graduation, you are a fragile butterfly emerging from the safety of your cocoon. You’re older, wiser (maybe), and pretty ill-prepared for the future (wtf are taxes?). School is secure, it’s a schedule, it’s routine, and by the end you could probably do it in your sleep. Breaking away from it is hard, especially for the first few months, when you’re struggling to find your feet. The threshold of real life is daunting.

But everyone’s in the same boat, climbing out of that bubble together. You’ve got the rest of your life ahead of you, working five days a week and earning proper money, so make sure you choose a career that you’ll love and never devalue the experiences you had inside the bubble, because it’s what makes you the you of the future.