Setting Yourself Up For Disappointment

Steer clear of setting high expectations for high school

Setting+Yourself+Up+For+Disappointment

Contrary to popular belief, high school will not be the greatest time of your life. Similarly, senior year will not be the most epic year ever. Unless your peak in life is in high school, which hopefully it’s not, these years will only be sub-par. These four years will be memorable for a multitude of reasons, and I will not neglect the fact that it is certainly something to look forward to. However, do not let your exceedingly high expectations that you may have set for these years cloud the reality that you will face.

As an adolescent teenage girl, I went into high school with high expectations that ultimately ended in disappointment. Movies and television shows always glorify high school and ingrain this idea into the minds of the youth, and naturally I just expected that my high school experience would be one for the books. I had initially convinced myself that high school would be amazing as long as I had a consistent circle of friends that I could always count on, a boyfriend that I could show off to the world, and the perfect image to present on social media.

It wasn’t long until these things quickly vanished, however. After just one year, my friend group had fallen to pieces, I no longer had a boyfriend, and I felt extremely disatisfied with myself for not making high school “amazing.” Every young teenager girl can probably relate, and while these weren’t the worst things to deem important at the time, they were nonetheless unfulfilling things to run after.

I always thought that the reason high school was amazing was directly related to having a good group of friends and looking like you had it together, but this was entirely false. In the middle of my high school experience I had lost everything that I valued so dearly, and it wasn’t long after that when I realized where I had gone wrong. The problem wasn’t that I failed to play the part of a high schooler, rather I was listening to the advice of the world by chasing after people and a good looks.

While it isn’t bad to desire a good group of friends and a good image, this shouldn’t be the goal going into high school. The reality is that you are going to lose friends, you are going to feel like a failure, and you are going to question everything at some point in your high school career. But the glorious thing is that you will overcome the challenges you will face and grow as an individual. You will conquer things that you would have never imagined, and it will altogether shape you into who you are designed to be. Joining clubs, getting involved, and going outside of your comfort zone is how to make highschool memorable; not by running after looks and boys. 

As I end high school now, I can honestly say that high school is something that I will always cherish, just not for the reasons you may think. I won’t hold onto all the friendships that I’ve made over the years, and frankly that’s a good thing. I won’t look back and think that it was the highlight of my life and how I would do anything to go back. I will, however, remember high school as the place where I found my passions and gained the independence to conquer my goals.

As you push through your final years of high school or start this long four year journey, try not to focus on the vapid ideals that will mean nothing once you leave high school. Pursue what you are passionate about, get involved, and stay busy. Your goal should not be to make these years spectacular because that will most likely end in disappointment. Nothing will ever turn out just as you imagined it so take it one day at a time and relax because high school will be remembered no matter what, it just may not be in the way you think.