What follows is a narrative of my high school career.

Please, no hate. Constructive criticism only. And I apologize for the cheesy similes/metaphors. She requested that we have them. If you read this whole thing, I'll be impressed, and seriously beef your karma if you give criticism.

High school is something that’s really not a whole lot of fun to deal with, but its there, everyone has to cope with it, and if you suck it up, then the end result is much better. For most, high school isn’t exactly difficult; it’s more arduous and tedious than anything. Personally, I enjoy high school, except for the fact that it’s exactly that – school. I enjoy the teenage years. Physically we’re at our prime; our bodies heal quickly, we can be carefree, and we have little to no responsibility. I just dislike the academic aspect. A lot of the things you learn in high school, you’ll never use again. Most of high school is preparing you and conditioning you to perform in the business world. For me, high school has been much like a flat tire. There’s nothing much you can do to keep it from happening, it has thrown itself upon you against your will, and it’s not your fault but you have to kick your own butt to get through it anyway, and you’re stuck until you do.

The first thing I dislike about high school is the whole idea that you’re not really there on your own accord. I believe that some individuals can, and do succeed without advanced education. Warren Buffet was rejected by Harvard, and was one of the richest people who ever lived. Bill Gates? He dropped out of college. Albert Einstein performed terribly in high school, yet he discovered some of the most famous scientific principles around to date. In fact, most self-made business titans were either high school or college dropouts. Notice a pattern? Yet, we’re all stuck in high school and the only chance of any of us succeeding in this world is based off of our performance in these academic establishments that could in fact be useless. There’s one thing in common about all of the three people I previously mentioned – they weren’t afraid to be wrong. In a sense, high school conditions us to be absolutely mortified to be “wrong”. What happens when we answer a question wrong on a test? We lose points, and perhaps even fail. How many times was Thomas Edison wrong before he finally perfected the light bulb? How many people said he was crazy and that it couldn’t be done? The problem with this system of education is that it conditions us to be the same, it trains us to be clones. Why is it so hard to get into college these days? Why is it so hard to stand out in this world and be successful? It’s because the educational system that the world operates on is seemingly training us for a meager desk job. I believe that yes, school does help us, but perhaps they way we educate isn’t quite right.

Another thing I really dislike about school is that I have to work my butt off in order to succeed in this world. Fortunately, I’m fairly smart and can maintain A’s and B’s, and the future for me looks bright. But, I can’t say that I’m not terrified of being stuck at a desk job when I’m older. That’s the last thing I want. But what are the chances of being able to rake in a low to mid six figure salary without working at some kind of desk job? How bad does that suck? Isn’t it miserable that in order to enjoy life and live comfortably, we have to engage in the monotony of the routine of a desk job that we may even hate? I’ll pass, thanks. I’m lucky that I have the brains to succeed, but what if I hadn’t been wired in such a way that makes it easy for me to succeed in the public school format? What if I was wired in such a way that it was impossible for me to maintain a 3.7 GPA or higher? Would that be fair to me at all? I don’t think so. There are plenty of extremely bright people in this world that are unfortunately not wired to function and perform well in school, and are unfairly cheated out of a good living. Now, I’m not saying that everyone who gets bad grades is a genius, because that would be extremely false. There are lazy people in this world, and there are idiots, but finding the right way to separate them from the hidden geniuses is the hard part.

Now, I understand that in order to succeed in life, you have to work hard, but why must we be trapped in a school for seven hours a day, five days a week, and about nine months a year? And most importantly, we do this during the prime of our lives. Doesn’t it seem a bit depressing that we seem to be wasting the best time of our lives in a bare, uncomfortable and unwelcoming classroom? At this point, shouldn’t we be experiencing the world rather than watching it through a window? I understand that some would argue that without educating our youth, chaos would ensue, but can’t we find a better way to go about educating the youth? Why is it that when it comes to school, the vast majority of teens strap on a nasty attitude and a sneering tone? That’s a dead giveaway that it’s too much for us at this age. Who thought it would be a good idea to gather the world’s most energetic, restless, and emotionally supercharged population, and stick them in a single room for seven hours a day? That’s a logic that just doesn’t make sense. I would agree that we need to educate the youth, but there has to be an easier way to do it. Putting us in an educational prison for seven hours a day really, really sucks.

Some people, upon hearing this argument, would say, “Okay, then what’s you answer to the problem, hotshot? If it’s such an issue to you, then do something about it. Fix it”, but the fact of the matter is – there is no easy answer, and I’ll probably have to continue to deal with my flat-tire high school experience. Personally, I wish my high school experience was more like fixing something. You take it apart, figure out what’s wrong, then figure out what works, and what doesn’t, then put it together again. When it works again, it’s instantly gratifying, and it’s not such a bad thing that you kind of had fun doing it too.