Where did all of my time go?

This is a question I’ve been asking myself over and over again since my realization that I’ve only a few more months until I am officially a high school graduate.

To my surprise, the beginning of my final year has been a bit rough, as opposed to my past three years when I started off with bursting energy. I feel all the burdens of my high school years weighing down on me, as if I’m drowning in regrets and the sense of guilt that I need to work harder than ever to compensate for what I’ve messed up on.

Yet as I review my transcript and resume while filling out my gruesome college apps, I ponder what all of these letters and numbers mean.

I’ve invested so much of my time in perfecting my student self so I may look appealing to colleges, only to find myself caught up in measuring self-worth by superficial standards and not my growth as a person.

Of course, the grades and achievements I’ve earned mean something, but high school is meant for more; it’s a time to learn about oneself, about people, about the world.

So, I encourage you all to take a break from stressing about the grades. Celebrate all of your successes and meditate not on what you’ve failed to do but on the process you underwent picking yourself back up from the failure. I assure you, ten years from now you will be more grateful that your time went to embracing the short four years of this phase rather than crying about one test you didn’t pass. In the long run, those things won’t matter, but the person you’ve become out of it will.

Reste toi-même,

Michelle Kang