Savor your high school experience

liza COOPER

It’s freshman year. I’m sitting in biology class, tapping my pencil impatiently on the desk. Glancing over at the clock, I make a mental note that I have 30 minutes left in the class. I turn back towards my teacher, who is explaining Watson and Crick’s model of DNA. I glance back at the clock. Twenty-nine minutes.

It’s sophomore year. I’m at home, listening to my teacher explaining Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison over Zoom. I look at the analog clock sitting on my office desk. 9:45 a.m. I pick up “Song of Solomon” and reread the passage my teacher is talking about. Look back at the clock. 9:48 a.m.

It’s junior year. I’m at the first home football game of the season, screaming at the top of my lungs with my friends because we scored a touchdown. I am hungry and wonder when the game will be over. I glance at the time on my phone. It’s 7:45 p.m. But special teams is coming out onto the field for another kickoff, so I forget about my hunger.

Now, it’s senior year. I am so busy. I am spending time with my friends on the weekend, reading my 2,000 page history textbook and figuring out summer plans. I am so busy, but the thing I want most is for time to freeze.

If there is one thing I truly regret doing in the past couple of years, it’s wishing time away.

During freshman and sophomore years, I only wanted to be older. Older people have their lives figured out and acne-free skin. Older people don’t have to read Toni Morrison and analyze the metaphors.

Wishing away time was something I enjoyed doing. I loved thinking about what dress I would wear to Graduation or the look on my parents’ faces when I showed them my diploma.

I spent so much valuable time during the beginning of high school thinking about the future instead of actively experiencing the present. I don’t remember the color of my first Homecoming date’s tie or the grade I got on my first Spanish vocabulary test –random things that make up a high school experience.

But now, I wish I had paid more attention and stopped looking at the clock. High school is a time of growth, opportunity and freedom. At no other stage of my life will I be able to learn about forensic science and then go to a coffee shop after school with my friends I’ve known since kindergarten and pay with my mom’s credit card. Who would want to wish that away?

A large part of the reason I changed

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One of the things my friends and I like to do to preserve our high school memories is take pictures with small digital cameras, disposable cameras or camcorders. I used my digital camera during fun events like Wacky Olympics and football games, but also during other times where I just wanted to capture everyday moments.

my mind was the onset of COVID-19. The time I had to spend alone, away from people and places I previously had taken for granted, made me reconsider the true importance of savoring my high school experience.

I hate cheesy texting abbreviations, but YOLO is now a moniker I swear by. You only live once and wishing time away is a waste of time in itself. This change of mindset has enabled me to feel at ease with my current self and situation without wishing for something greater.

Even though I didn’t realize it before, I now know one of the greatest pleasures in life is experiencing the present and living in the moment.