High School Un-Musical
Gratitude Challenge - Week 30 - Your Current Age
From then on, I idealized high school, painting it to be as shiny and flashy and picture-perfect as High School Musical. As the class nerd with a love for singing, I sympathized with Gabriella, and I hoped Troy Bolton would come for me. Mean girls like Sharpay would be put in their place, and everyone would dance and sing in the hallways.
Now, I am an 18-year-old senior in high school. My life experience has doubled since the release of High School Musical. One of my favorite religion teachers said that knowledge can be learned, but wisdom comes with age. I look back on my younger self and chuckle; it is amazing to see the dreams of a younger child via the light of an older age.
High school, unfortunately, is nothing like High School Musical. People stick to the status quo, and nerds rarely date the stars of the basketball team. Mean girls sometimes get their way, and nobody sings on tables in the lunchroom. If they did, they would probably receive detentions. And, there are no Troy Boltons. To my younger self, high school would be a great disappointment.
And yet, so much of high school is greater than what is portrayed in High School Musical. We may not dance on tables and proclaim our inner desires on a daily basis, but the process of self-discovery manifests in each student. The status quo exists, but it is not uncommon for popular seniors to take in a lonely underclassman, or uncommon friendships to form between two vastly different people.
High school is not about finding your soulmate or your best friend or even your favorite subject. Those events can and do happen, but they are byproducts, not goals. High school, in its purest sense, allows you to find yourself while you still have the safety net of living at home.
Being 18 occupies this strange in-between area. Legally, I am an adult, but logically, I am still a child, living with my parents' support and asking to go to the restroom in school. Next year in college, adulthood will be thrust upon me. Though I am excited to go off into the world, right now, I am content to be 18.
In fourth grade, I wanted nothing more than to be Gabriella and find my Troy Bolton. Now, at 18 years old, I finally realize that I am Gillian, and I do not need to find anyone but myself. It is not an easy lesson to stick to, especially on Valentine's Day.
That being said, I am not immune to the pressures of the status quo. There is this great quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that says, "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
It is a lifelong fight, but one I am determined to win.
High School Musical released in theaters in 2006, recently celebrating its 10th anniversary. That made me feel old for the first time in my life. When the movie was released, I was almost 9. However, I did not actually see the movie myself until a year or two later; I know I was in 4th grade.
From then on, I idealized high school, painting it to be as shiny and flashy and picture-perfect as High School Musical. As the class nerd with a love for singing, I sympathized with Gabriella, and I hoped Troy Bolton would come for me. Mean girls like Sharpay would be put in their place, and everyone would dance and sing in the hallways.
Now, I am an 18-year-old senior in high school. My life experience has doubled since the release of High School Musical. One of my favorite religion teachers said that knowledge can be learned, but wisdom comes with age. I look back on my younger self and chuckle; it is amazing to see the dreams of a younger child via the light of an older age.
High school, unfortunately, is nothing like High School Musical. People stick to the status quo, and nerds rarely date the stars of the basketball team. Mean girls sometimes get their way, and nobody sings on tables in the lunchroom. If they did, they would probably receive detentions. And, there are no Troy Boltons. To my younger self, high school would be a great disappointment.
And yet, so much of high school is greater than what is portrayed in High School Musical. We may not dance on tables and proclaim our inner desires on a daily basis, but the process of self-discovery manifests in each student. The status quo exists, but it is not uncommon for popular seniors to take in a lonely underclassman, or uncommon friendships to form between two vastly different people.
High school is not about finding your soulmate or your best friend or even your favorite subject. Those events can and do happen, but they are byproducts, not goals. High school, in its purest sense, allows you to find yourself while you still have the safety net of living at home.
Being 18 occupies this strange in-between area. Legally, I am an adult, but logically, I am still a child, living with my parents' support and asking to go to the restroom in school. Next year in college, adulthood will be thrust upon me. Though I am excited to go off into the world, right now, I am content to be 18.
In fourth grade, I wanted nothing more than to be Gabriella and find my Troy Bolton. Now, at 18 years old, I finally realize that I am Gillian, and I do not need to find anyone but myself. It is not an easy lesson to stick to, especially on Valentine's Day.
That being said, I am not immune to the pressures of the status quo. There is this great quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that says, "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
It is a lifelong fight, but one I am determined to win.
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