Focusing on what is going on in their lives and their friends’ lives, many try to push away the future, reduce their stress and learn valuable lessons.
High school has many aspects to it: social life, academics, clubs, etc.
Deciding which of these is prioritized is a large controversy among the student body.
While it’s a large controversy, gearing towards social life is the best option.
The biggest piece of advice that every high school alumni gives is that the years fly by and students should do anything they can to appreciate it.
When academics aren’t the main focus, it can make it easier to appreciate these times.
When friends are in the picture and days are spent doing your favorite activities with your favorite people, you are creating lifelong friendships and memories.
Creating these memories will not only make your high school experience full of happiness, but it will also make the future seem just a little bit farther.
While the future seems like it is closing in, so is the stress of everyday school work and other responsibilities.
When the teenage years come around, so much is demanded of you.
You need to learn how to drive, you need to get a job, you need to ace every test.
How could any teenager survive this stress without a buffer?
Spending time with friends can help you relax, and perform better in school due to this relaxation.
“Oh man, I got an 86% on a math test instead of a 96%.” Oh well.
Acing every single test is not possible for any person.
Why worry about every single grade and assignment when they can just be less important in the scheme of things?
Focusing on your social life and choosing to be less affected by academic success can be such a stress-reliever.
Finding ways to remove unnecessary stress is an important lesson, one of many that can be learned through socializing.
This can help with managing workload.
School is mainly the place to teach students lessons and prepare them for the more logistical half of life. But not everything in life is going to be logistical.
Meeting new people and experiencing new things will open a whole new door of lessons that school just cannot teach.
School cannot teach kids how to be a good friend or how to be reliable, but when someone chooses their social life to be the focal point of their life, they can learn such lessons.
As said by author John Krakauer, “It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found.”
New experiences and lessons are the most valuable things anybody can take out of life, and there is no shortage of them in the world.
So when it comes down to thinking back on life, what are you going to remember?
The random chemistry test you failed or the friends you made countless memories with over the years?
Life is too short and too valuable to waste on unnecessary stress.
Just live.