Grade 12: the cruel yet beautiful, stereotypical yet interesting, ignorance-filled yet insightful world for us teenagers. Not to mention, there’s the impending doom waiting for every grade 12 student at the end of the year’s summer vacations, when we step into a university lecture room and hear the professor say: “Haha, and YOU thought high school was hard!?”
You might have a different image of your last year of school than everyone else, but you’ve been in the same well-worn, torn, disfigured, discolored and two sizes too small pair of shoes of every 12th Grader more than you might think. Here are just a few points to show how our hive mind really works:
1. What is life?
Life is joy. Life is action. Life is love. Life is charity. Life is complex and life is simple. Life is toil and life is rest. Life is pain and life is pleas… alright, I’ll stop.
The thing is, we’ve all stopped at one point in our hectic year, maybe when things aren’t going our way or when the stress just gets to us, and thought what exactly we’re doing with our lives. We look back at our lives and think how much time we’ve either wasted or misused and as a result make promises to do better tomorrow.
2. The Girl/Guy Goals
Oh, c’mon, like you didn’t expect this one. Yes, I know the girlfriend/boyfriend dilemma is pretty common knowledge. The only reason I focus on it is because it varies in each person’s mind. High school is a warehouse for hormones. You have guys and girls going after serious relationships and then also just some short flings.
The thing is, most people just get caught up in the whole romance of things and think it’s their “time to finally get into the ‘game’.” As a result, they just lose sight of who they are and what the original purpose of having someone with you is. The best thing in a high school relationship is for the two to be best friends so that they support each other, nothing more and nothing less. And before I start sounding too much like a date.com advisor… most people just let their hearts or their ego get the better of them and as result, you’ll find that good ol’ drama that’s always a big part of the last year of school.
3. The Parental Paradox
We all love our parents, right? The people who raised you, dealt with you when all you did was throw food, cry at midnight and defecate? We all know how important they are for us especially since they’re still providing a roof and our day to day meals.
Yet, every teenager has ‘hated’ their parents one time or another. It’s just one of those phases where you just feel the stress and you get annoyed when your mom keeps asking to eat something or get off your phone, and it just gets worse just when all the hectic last year of high school work kicks in.
4. The Drama Dilemma
I touched on this a bit before, but this is one fun topic that deserves its own heading (and I thought of the cool title and didn’t want it to go to waste).
Whether you’re (and I’m going to avoid using stereotype names here) study-focused, don’t care what happens to your future, totally obsessed with being the cool kid or just feel like you don’t fit in, you’ll always be exposed to the ‘scenes’ of high school. And the funny thing is that if you’re a part of “Amanda’s insane fight with Josh over him picking an unfit president for the Music Society since he was her sister’s ex,” then all you’ll want is get out of it after a while. As a bystander you’ll just think of how it feels to be in their place. Or you’ll be just like me and just be chilling and eating your pudding cup while all hell breaks loose…
5. The Study Struggle
Man, I’m pretty on point with my alliterative titles… anyways, yes, this one is another obvious one, so here’s a photo to just describe it.
What you intend to do:
What you end up doing:
6. The Future
Granted, we’ve always thought of being rockstars and superheroes, but it sucks to say that that’s not what we think about anymore. It’s all boring ‘future planning’ nowadays, with some people scared to even think about the future, some thinking of going and starting their own business, or getting all excited to go abroad to study so that they can come back and flaunt their new accent and exotic clothes and make you think you’re inferior to them in ways you never thought possible because you just weren’t born into nobility like they were an…(sorry, I got a little carried away there).
Anyway, yeah, we often find ourselves planning for the next few months ahead and that was a really common topic of conversation in my school: “Where are you heading?” It’s just a part of growing up. You simply start getting boring and “practical.”
7. Friend Fiddling
Often times with all the drama and petty problems you have to deal with as a grade 12 student, you start noticing that some friends are more helpful than others.
And since the last year of high school is another step towards ‘growing up,’ with everyone looking at their own priorities you start moving away from people that seem to not respect you as a friend or just seem to be jealous. Even with best friends we find ourselves just being more at ease hanging out with specific people and even though that didn’t matter when we were little, you start depending more on your friends the older you got. Eventually after high school, everyone knows who they want in their inner circle for sure.
8. Individual Independence
I’m really losing my mojo with these titles. Basically what it’s supposed to mean is that people start to take their lives into their own hands around the end of high school.
(That is officially the cutest picture I’ve ever seen on the internet.)
Anyway, you start worrying more and stressing more and start trying to prove to everyone around you that you know what you’re doing (you hate that I’m right don’t you?). It’s pretty cool since you slowly have people taking responsibility and acting mature rather than fighting over who called your mom fat.
9. Teacher Lovin’
*Cracks knuckles* Now this is getting interesting. If you haven’t had a crush on a teacher at your school then I feel sad for you, you boring and unadventurous piece of meat.
We spend half our day for years going to meet these people and eventually the “Mermaid Effect” kicks in. (The “Mermaid Effect” is when a man sees a woman long enough, he begins to find her attractive. – Barney Stinson)
It could be a teacher who wears a little too much makeup, or maybe one who likes his shirts a little too tight. We’ve all thought about one or another and maybe even focused a little extra hard in their class and worked just a little harder to get just a little better grade than everyone else to stick out. No, just me?…. Damn it, not again.
10. “Let’s change it up!”
Like you haven’t thought that last one in your 4 years? Don’t lie to The Over-Lord…..of this post. I don’t know what happens or what occurs to us when we’re in high school; maybe it’s just a sign of growing up and becoming more aware, but a lot of people just seem to want to change when they’re exposed to the vibrant environment of a high school.
Everyone has a story. My dad used to tell me that, and when you start learning people’s stories, you’re bound to question what yours is. As a result some people feel like they don’t want to be the person they’ve grown to be after all these years. This can often lead to The Parental Paradox as we begin to become more aware. (Sounds like the Terminator, but I promise you it’s completely normal and healthy in specific cases. It depends if you want to start studying or working out more… or if your ‘change’ is to join a biker gang).
Also, I absolutely love how my thoughts are tying in and leading to one another. This just gives you an idea of how our minds seem to work.
11. Initiating The Fresh Meat
One of the fondest memories you can have in high school is how scared you were of the seniors in your first year. The number of abuses hurled your way or wedgies given, or the lack thereof, depends on how lucky you are.
But no matter how much you feel for the poor kids you know you have to keep the tradition going. What if they rise up if you go easy on them? A mutiny? You can’t have that!
The last year is filled with teasing the smaller kids. If it’s all in good humor, at least, and it wouldn’t be high school if you didn’t have that one kid who got his lunch stolen, tripped in the hallway and skinned his knees, got beaten up if he said anything to the big kids, and whose life was made horrible and eventually got scarred so much that he started making a living writing blogs on the internet… Damn it, I did it again. Anyways… bullying! Yeah! WOOOOOO!
12. The Good Stuff
Drugs. Plain and simple. Things seem hard, you can’t seem to get a break and you just need to get away from the stupid stresses of everyday life. Alcohol, smoking, and drugs got pretty common in my last year and it’s a freaky cycle since as more and more people do it, it becomes more normalized, and as a result more people get into it.
Not that I’m your mom – I’m just here to tell you that by the end of high school you’ll find very few people who haven’t had an experience like that, though of course it varies from school to school.
13. Trippin’ The Teacher
I remember thinking people were lying to me in grade 5 when they’d tell me that at one point in my life, the teacher won’t be able to scream at me to make me stop talking in class or say no when I tell them I need to go to the bathroom AND SAY IT’S AN EMERGENCY. Heaven, it sounded like.
But making sure the teacher knows who’s boss is always in the head of at least one person in class. It’s like a compulsion to point out and make fun of most teachers’ mistakes, clothes, and way of talking. It sounds really really mean because it is. Though if we find a teacher who is cool, we usually try to get them on our side.
But the ever-present teasing, noise-making and annoying isn’t a waste of time. It keeps the teacher attentive and on their toes. That’s why we do it. For the betterment of the education system.
14. The Talent Show
We all have something unique that we can do better than anyone else. I’ll leave the optimistic deep sayings to those Facebook posts, but depending on whether you can sing, solve riddles like they’re a piece cake or maybe juggle three water balloons filled with maple syrup while doing a handstand with one hand, high school is sometimes the beginning of a whole professional career in that one special thing you’re really good at.
Speaking from personal experience as well as looking at stars like John Travolta, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp and even Seth Rogen, I can tell you that high school, especially the last year, is when you start thinking in depth about what you want to do with your life if you haven’t decided already. As a result, some people are brave enough to go out there and follow their heart. (Not that I condone that, it’s all circumstantial what you should pursue).
(That photo is a testament that there’s hope for us all yet.)
15. Grooming and Growing
This is somewhat similar to the “Friend Fiddling” and “Individual Independence” points and that is tooootalllly on purpose. I felt this needed its separate elaboration because it’s something that was really prominent in my last year (but that just might be my sad life seeping through the façade I call my life)… alright, that’s the last time I’m letting that happen.
After a while, when you hang out with the same people and go through the same routine everyday, you’re bound to get tired of it all. That’s normal and we’ve even talked about it before. But another part of the teenage psyche is that you start feeling like you’ve been acting like a child when you should’ve been a mature adult. Even the common demand of parents for us to become ‘more responsible’ and ‘more mature’ pulls on this string and we start trying to become and act more rational, more wise, and much stronger. This is what gets us through that last year full of unpredictable hurdles and issues.
16. Prom
Not much to explain without stating the obvious really…
17. Partaaaaaaaaayyyyyy
You might not be the loud music and socializing type, but that doesn’t mean this still can’t apply to you. By the exaggerated title I meant “thinking of doing something big before high school ends.” It’s the end of an era for you. The conclusion of a movie that’s a comedy, adventure, action, romance and a horror mess all jammed into one.
You can’t helping ending all the craziness with one last stunt that tops it all. It might be one last night of staying out late and painting the town red or just gathering everyone and having a big ol’ dinner. A big prank in school or finally telling the girl of your dreams you like her are equally deserving of respect though.
18. Nostalgia
No matter who you are, you’ve got to admit you’ll miss the old place when you’re gone. High school is a place that you’ve spent 4 years of your life in. You worked hard to get good grades in it, to make new friends, and it might’ve even been the reason you were molded into the person you are when you leave.
You might even be leaving the city and your friends behind when the year ends and you have to head off to university. That just makes it all the more important to look back at all the memories that those 4 years gave you.
19. Making a Mark
And when that nostalgia hits us, some people feel like they have to leave something behind as a mark. Something to remind people that you were once there too. This could be relatable to the “partaaaaaaaaayyyyyy” point, but it all depends on how you look at it. I could just be running out of good ideas, or you just don’t know the difference between a good farewell party and a formal good bye.
20. The Next Step
Finally… after all the stress and hectic running around and procrastinating, you always end up looking forward. Whether you picture yourself in a university classroom or maybe it’s still a little hazy what exactly you’ll be doing in the fall, we’re all a little scared of where life will lead us.
But that’s when our best friend busts into the room or when the teacher suddenly realizes he has to actually teach you something before you leave and you get snapped out of that thinking trance, and just decide to enjoy the little time you still have left.
