High school isn’t everything. I’m sure a lot of you are wondering what I mean by this. After all, high school is probably the most important part of your life because it’s what you’re living right now. Many of you see high school as the best thing you’ll ever experience because it’s where you’re the most popular, where you make Homecoming Court, where everyone knows your name. Many of us, however, aren’t living that ideal high school experience. Many of us aren’t very well-known, we aren’t winning any popularity contests, and we aren’t being treated very well by those that are. Well, here’s some advice from someone that has experienced those not so great things: whenever you’re feeling hurt, or alone, or left out, remember that high school isn’t everything. 

High school isn’t everything. The people you’re surrounded by here are not necessarily the people you’ll have to deal with for the rest of your life—this is all temporary. The people that leave you out of things and exclude you are not worth your time or your sadness, because you will end up wasting your high school career worrying about something that you can’t control. As someone who is constantly left out and excluded from things by peers, I know (maybe better than anyone) that high school isn’t everything. Not being invited to a party or a get-together may hurt, but it hurts a lot less when you step back and realize that these four years will not be the most significant in the big picture of your life. High school isn’t everything. 

High school isn’t everything. Be yourself. This may be advice that you have heard way too much, but take it from someone that has gotten throughout all of high school living this advice. Be yourself and don’t let the people around you convince you to change yourself just because they’re more popular or meaner. Trust me, you will have a miserable high school experience if you live your life pretending to be someone else, never being who you truly want to be. Don’t let anyone change you, because the kids in high school that don’t like you for no reason are just jealous. That’s the truth: people only bully you to make themselves feel better and to make you feel worse because they are jealous of who you are. They’re jealous of your grades, or your body type, or your clothes. Be yourself, and don’t let any harsh words change you, because the whole point of their harsh words is to make you less amazing than you are. Another thing you need to remember is that most people you meet in high school will likely just be a speck in the universe  in the grand scheme of things. You’ll spend your high school years with them, and then you’ll live decades of your own life without them, so don’t let them succeed in convincing you that their negative opinions of you matter. Be yourself–high school isn’t everything, and it would be a shame to live your life with the mindset that these four short years are the most important that you’ll ever have.