What Really Happens After High School

It's the month before Graduation, you're counting down the days to your escape and filing up your summer bucket list with your friends. You just can't wait to be done with school and finally get the freedom you've been craving. 

It's Graduation Day, you and your friends cry and laugh reminiscing about the "high school days" . You spend hours taking pictures in your cap and gown, and your yearbook's been signed "don't ever change" 3000 times. You smile. Your summer is here.

But what really happens now? 

If you're fortunate to be apart of the 1% of the teenage population that has the perfect pre-college summer: poolside parties every night, days spent road-tripping to the beach, all friends all the time, with no responsibilities and unlimited money, than you can stop reading now. Because for most of us this summer is the first of a lot of soon-to-be changes.

It's one month after it all ended, you feel like you haven't seen your friends in weeks, most likely because you haven't, or because you all have jobs. You finally manage to make plans with all of them, at the same time and you're super excited! But once you get there you feel awkward. Why? You've never felt awkward around them before, they're your best friends, right? Well it turns out this is actually completely normal. 

That first month after graduation, when you spend most of your week working, preparing for college, or just trying to relax in between all of your activities, is when you start to develop who you are, you're actual interests (no Facebook stalking hot guys is not an actual interest,) and maybe what you want to do for the rest of your life! This first summer after high school is the beginning of the biggest time of self-discovery in your life. 

So if you find yourself sitting with your friends half-way through the summer, feeling like you don't belong (like I did), it's [probably] not because all your friends are hanging out without you, or are conspiring against you; it's probably because you're all starting to figuring out who you are in this world. 

This last summer before college is important, but it should still be fun. If you're going through what I went through don't spend all your time worrying about it, or trying to find new friends quickly before the summer ends, enjoy the time you have with your high school friends and try to accept that they may always just be your high school friends. College, and life, are just around the corner. 

xoxo

AME