It’s been known that high school contributes a myriad of components to our social lives as we go through the process of learning and growing. It is also our construct when evaluating our educational standard, to see where we fall in place with the other distinct teenagers like ourselves.

We try to find our place in this perplexing society that allows the opportunity for these pulsive hormones that consume our bodies that express our profound personalities. This emphasizes our angst and rebellion we have towards adults that have us think we are everything, but in reality, rather, we can be arrogant and ignorant with our actions.

This has us cram every little assignment before the day it’s due and because of our procrastination, we are intact. Our little effort, but caring nature of wanting to study for tests that we have very little knowledge of still helped us get an A. At the very most, a B.

Entering society where being social is a mandatory aspect can be difficult, as you are no longer in a school full of teenagers but out in the world as an individual. You can be one of the populous that has a high social standard that garners everyone’s attention or be that one socially awkward kid that has very little intentions to associate with anyone because of suffering from anxiety, and this continues throughout the rest of your life. 

This is my story of enduring this experience that is high school. A chapter in my life that really shaped up who I was as a person and how this developed my character into breaking out the shell that has always devoured my every little characteristic I possessed that was foreign, but now found.

I was foreign when I first came to Santiago after having a troubling past that my family had to go through that destined me to stumble upon this barren and boring city. Upon the first impression, of course, I was negative towards the environment, people or places because it wasn’t home. It didn’t feel right.

But after feelings of despair and constant thoughts of sadness, I eventually found out throughout freshman year that there are people that actually cared for me and wanted to help out some boy that was new that didn’t bestow much to the table.

I was talked to about subjects that I could relate to, like building and playing on PC or having a passion for writing. You know, the nerd things.

While everything felt arduous to accommodate to, it’s still a progression for me that I endured and adjusted to.

Classes were great, even though I dreaded some of them due to my ignorance. That was prolonged because of my stubbornness of not getting help because I thought I knew everything when in reality I didn’t.

Junior year was a disaster, but a disaster that made me learn a few things in mind. Like not procrastinating at the last minute when you’re in APUSH or undergoing heartbreak when in a relationship with someone close.

It was painful. It made me want to go away from everything and just be alone – how almost every high school student feels at one point.

It’s because of this that I had to fake my happiness and what I displayed to people that was positivity, but in reality, it was empty inside.

Senior year was soon upon me, and it was an opportunity for me to finally make up for my misdeeds in the past and misconceptions I may have had with classes that I didn’t understand. It was my time to face fate and fear itself.

I didn’t know anyone at first. But surprisingly, I found people that I knew in the past in classes that associated with mine. Even new people that came up to me when I couldn’t do the same due to my anxiety and social awkwardness that confines in me. It was new and it was nostalgic. A surprise that I myself didn’t expect.

As Senior year passed, it was ironically when I procrastinated when I told myself I wouldn’t from the year prior. I felt motivated, but at the same time lazy. It was a theme that was conveyed throughout the entirety of the year. I learned new things. I faced a tragedy that made me reflect upon my past. A moment of silence and reminisce that I would embed in.

As the graduation timer is counting down to June 4th and every moment I spend with the people I love, I feel a sense of sadness that clouds over me. Though happiness that clouds my judgment because that all this experience, these moments, everything that lead up to this. It’s a memory worth remembering.