Memories Of A High School Survivor

My little cousin starts high school today, and I'm kind of freaking out. She went from this little thing that would fall asleep in my arms to a tall, gorgeous, smart, brave girl who could take over the world. I'm excited for her, and nervous for her.


When you ask people about their high school experience, they either loved it, or they hated it. I loved it the first two years, but the last two were hell on earth. The more I thought about why, the more I came to realize... Finding who you are is painful. Not everyone will like you, and there is really nothing you can do about it. High school is where your innocent views of the world become a distant memory, and you have to face the reality that not everyone or everything in the world is good.


Going through the first two years of my high school career, it was fun. I had the same friends I had grown up with, I got to spend my free time with them, I had my first boyfriend... Life was good. But by the time Junior year came around, I found that just because I was growing as a person, didn't mean my friends were too. I lost relationships with people I loved. I broke up with my perfect first boyfriend who turned out to be one of the biggest jerks I would ever meet. It was hard.


I left the country to go work in Central America the summer before Senior year, and I came back ready to live my life with love and kindness. I wanted to be someone who brought peace to every heart she met, but high school and peace hardly go hand in hand.


I was tired of the drama, and because of that, I tried to speak into it and bring peace, but unfortunately, young people are often bad at doing that, and I only made things worse. Senior year was one of the biggest growing seasons I've ever had.
I learned a lot about who I didn't want to be, I learned who I did and didn't want to be friends with, and I learned that sometimes, people are in your life for a season. And that's ok. Mostly, I began to learn who I was as a person and what real love looked like.


My hope for my darling, sweet, beautiful cousin is that she would find who she is. That she would be a woman of kindness and someone who is never afraid of adventure. High school can be hard, but it's harder if you're wrapped up in drama. Stay grounded and be an ambassador of kindness and and example of peace. Learning to do those things now will carry over into life after high school, and those are the tools that will get you far.
Live peacefully and wander always.
{The Grounded Gypsy}