I Could Have Done Better.

 
 Griffin and I; 2012
Tonight, one of my best friends in the entire world graduates high school. His name is Griffin, and I've had the privilege of getting to watch him over the past four years mature into the young adult that they are today. Griffin is one of the few people in this world who honestly I can call my best friend, because other than the fact that he is truly awesome, he's someone whose always been there for me. Congratulations, Griffin! I look forward to hearing about all of your super-powers that you can share with everyone at college. Don't forget your favorite blogger/journalist. I can't wait to watch you graduate, like you did for me two years ago. Love, your favorite adult.

In honor of my high school graduating tonight, I wanted to reflect on my experiences as a student in high school, which were different than my college ones. In high school, I wasn't exactly the smartest person ever. Out of all of my friends, I had taken the least amount of AP classes. I barely studied, or did any of my homework efficiently. When I did, I often rushed it. This as you can imagine left me unable to produce my best work. I often slacked off, and was often found on Facebook for at least three or four hours a day. Clearly, I could have done better.
If I had to redo high school, the first thing that I could do would be to try harder. To realize that my social life had to be last. In high school, I was more concerned with meeting guys than I was making the grade. If I had tried that amount of effort I spent despairing that I didn't have a boyfriend than maybe I would have gotten a lot high GPA than I did. I now know how to study, and to push myself when need be. I realized that from high school, I got the easy ride. I took too many easy A classes, especially my senior year. If I had taken one or two more, I probably could have been done with some of my college requirements. (my school accepts AP credits if their passing.) Yes, that would have been a lot more work, but now looking back at it, I really could have handled it.
High school did have it's good points though. I met two of my closest friends. Griffin, pictured above, was through my high school band class, where I was the best flute player, ever. I tried really hard at music to become the best flute player that I could be. I also met Gabriel through a class that we had during high school. It's wierd to think that meeting them was three or four years ago. It's also weird to think that we're still friends too. Having both of them as my friends to this day is an exciting thing because they really taught me to become more curious and more accepting. I hope to maintain both of these friendships for the rest of my life, because they are really great friends to have.
Another part of high school that I'm truly happy that I did was the badminton team. I've played badminton for half of my high school career, and the experience was amazing. I made friendships with some girls with whom I'm close with too today, and played a sport that I truly loved. Playing that sport gave me confidence, in addition to the support I needed when my grandfather died in 2011. Those girls truly became a family, even though we had constant injuries. I wish that there was a badminton team here at my college, because that would make life a heck of a lot more fun. I guess you can say that the newspaper is my new team? Speaking of which, I was a part of my high school's newspaper as well, however, I didn't actually become serious about it until much later.
High school never ends. Some people regret high school, because they were bullied, hated it, or all of the above. However, I truly miss high school, but I have no regrets for what I've done. If I haven't, I wouldn't be the person that I am today. High school was a battle that I clearly won hands down. However, there's still more time to improve, cause I wanna get better.
I wrote this the day I graduated!