Why so serious? by Cassidy

Why so serious? by Cassidy - November 2013 Scholarship Essay

During my high school career I changed more than I ever thought imaginable. I have always been a bit of an overachiever, but high school was a completely different playground. Not only did I have to keep my grades up, but I was constantly focused on being socially accepted. Freshman year was easy for me, but that left room for stupid decisions. I wanted to belong to a click so bad; I got into a bad crowd. I wanted to be like those popular girls in the movies with their best friends by their side everyday of their high school lives, so I chose the druggy crowd. They seemed to be the tightest knit, friend oriented group, or so I thought. They were good friends, but only until I messed up and started taking myself too seriously. I thought they would always be there for me, even when I made stupid decisions, like lying to my parents and going to a mountain party. I was sadly mistaken; the police were called and everyone was arrested, because the police were sent to find me. My “best friends” said they would never invite me to another party, and I was not welcome in their group anymore. That was my reality check.

Life is not always about who has the most friends or the biggest posse at their side, but about enjoying the moments with the people who love enjoying them with you and love being in your presence. I went on foreign exchange during my junior year, and that is when I learned the biggest life lesson of my high school life. I began to not take life so seriously. I started listening to the people around me and began to really experience and enjoy the little things. It was also during my exchange that I learned about high school friends versus the rest of your life. Barely any of my high school “friends” made contact with me while I was away. Even people that occasionally messaged me didn’t seem to care too much about what was really happening in my life. During that year I learned, not everyone you meet in your life is going to stay in your life. Friends come and go, and in the end, only the REALLY good ones will stay.

My dad always told me “don’t take life so seriously, it’s not like you’re going to make it out alive.” I always thought this line was a funny joke, but I never really understood it until I was taken out of my comfort zone, to a new country that made me constantly question myself. That is where I learned the most valuable lesson of my high school life: don’t take life so seriously. When you let the little things go, and enjoy the moment you really begin to see things from a different perspective. You become more carefree and even street smart. Not everything in life deserves to be worked up about, and that is the biggest lesson; if you take yourself and life too seriously, everyone will take you too seriously. There is nothing fun about being serious all the time and there is definitely nothing entertaining about meeting someone who takes them self too seriously.

We all change in high school. We begin to form our own opinions and make our own decisions. Sure I like to make the right decision as much as the next girl, but I’m not going to let it consume me and let it stop me from enjoying all the steps that lead up to that decision. There is a time to be serious, but it is not all the time. As long as we keep that in mind, I believe the world will be a much happier, less stressful place.