Graduation: Reflections, High School Advice, Looking to the Future

Shamitha Perumala
Dec 24, 2022
6 min read

Updated: May 20, 2024

*Note: This post was originally posted on my old blog. It's been edited and reposted here.

Date originally posted: May 22, 2022; Date edited: July 26, 2022.

It's been such a long time since I last posted here! Almost a year ago, I was a junior just starting a blog for the fun of it, and now I'm a senior leaving high school. It's insane how time flies.

Since I'm graduating this week, I wanted to reflect on what I experienced and learned during my time in high school, or in life generally.

Time Flies By Fast, Cherish It

I've heard this phrase countless times before, but it never truly sunk in until I was sitting on my bed Saturday morning realizing that the day before was one of the last times I'll ever be able to see my peers--at least in a traditional school setting. I've seen almost all of them every year since kindergarten (minus the years of COVID, of course), and now I won't.

So, cherish it. Hang out with your friends as much as possible. Academics are still important, of course, but make sure to have time for your family and friends too. Take videos and pictures because once graduation comes around and everyone starts moving away for college, those will carry the strongest memories of the people that were once a significant part of your life.

I wish that I had spent more time making friends and hanging out with the people around me. I wish that I went with them to football games, restaurants, and the movies. I wish I had gone to more parties. These are some of my biggest regrets.

Stress Less & Live in the Moment

Living in the moment kind of ties into making more time for people, but this is specifically entailed to situations where school becomes the center of stress.

I might not be as pressured by my parents to do the utmost best when it comes to my grades as many other parents out there, but I do feel the pressure of not wanting to let them down. I have certain expectations of what ideal success is to me, but inevitably, I find myself struggling sometimes. In those times, I often stress out so much to the point where I start to think that it just isn't worth it anymore.

While it's still important to try my best, I also have to remind myself that at the end of the day, it's not worth risking my well-being if I don't get the perfect grade. After all, we're only on Earth for a short period of time. I should be grateful for what I have and look toward the positives. Mistakes happen, and it won't kill you to take some time to find yourself as well as other ways to reach your goals.

Take Risks, Discover Yourself

In my AP Psychology class, we learned about Erickson's stages of development, the internal conflicts that humans have at every stage of life. The conflict that surrounds your teen years is the struggle to define your identity.

I know many people might already know this or do this unconsciously, but I just want to emphasize that you should experiment in high school. I remember coming into high school fresh from 8th grade, not wanting to participate in anything. I know that there are people like that out there, and I know that it’s definitely intimidating to put yourself out there. If I could give you any advice on this, it would be to find a way. Just because it’s intimidating doesn’t mean you stick to one corner and give up.

Get a friend, one single friend at least, and join a club together. This takes off a lot of the nerves crawling on your shoulders ‘cause now, you’re not the only one who’s in this. And you never know. You guys can find yourselves having a lot of fun, discovering new passions, and creating new projects during your time in this club.
If you don’t have any friends at all, you have two options:
1. Take a deep breath, and go by yourself. It’s going to be hard, but you might end up going in yourself and coming out with several new friends. If you start taking initiative early on, it’ll become easier in similar situations in the future.
2. Make a friend. It doesn’t have to be a close friendship. Just start talking to someone in one of your classes or at lunch, and try pitching the idea of doing an activity together.

You’ll be surprised by what can come out of coming out of your comfort zone.

Joining clubs or sports isn't the only way to experiment either. If you wanna start building a website, do it. If you wanna make videos on something you're really good at, do it. I mean, I started this blog because one night (as I was ignoring my APUSH homework) I thought it would be cool to start one. A friend of mine started teaching himself piano and guitar a few years ago because he wanted to learn. Now, he’s learning how to cook. If I didn’t know this, I would have thought that he's been practicing since childhood.

Even if you can't guarantee success, just start doing something that you're remotely interested in. Who knows? Maybe you'll like it so much to the point where your ideas actually take off.

"I feel there's an existential angst among young people. I didn't have that. They see enormous mountains, where I only saw one little hill to climb." - Sergey Brin, Co-Founder of Google.

Adults Aren't as Scary (or Annoying) as You Think

1. For any fellow introverts out there:

Speaking to other people is already pretty terrifying and awkward, but when it comes to helpful adults in your life (especially teachers/mentors), always try to make an effort to get to know them. Not only is it really nice to hear their life stories and advice, but it's also going to be really useful as you're preparing for college and beyond. They're going to know more about what you should be doing to heighten your chances of impressing colleges, and they're going to come in a clutch for when you need recommendation letters.

2. For anyone who finds teachers annoying:

Just respect them (unless they're annoying for a good reason). At the end of the day, both of you are trying to make it through the day, so make it easier on both them and yourself.

College Is Not as Big of a Deal as You Think

If I could slap some sense into my junior self regarding this, I would.

So many people (especially juniors) like to make a big deal out of college. Like it's going to determine the rest of your life.

For some people, it might matter a lot. To them, I say go for it. Don’t let my words or anything stop you from your dreams.

However, also realize that not getting into your dream college isn't going to be the end of a successful future. You can still go to your backup school, or even your last choice, and still make it big. This is something that I had to deal with personally, and it took me a while to accept that my plans didn't go exactly the way I wanted them to go, but it is what it is and there will be good times along with the bad. Besides, life is a constant change. With that in mind, there are so many more possibilities.

What the Future Holds

There are a lot more points that I could make about life, but this post is already really long, so I'll refrain myself from adding more.

Obviously, I can't have my entire future planned out just yet, but I do have somewhat of an idea of what I wanna do with my days beyond high school.

Firstly, I'm planning to study neuroscience on the pre-medicine track at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It's a big move, especially since I'm from Illinois, which is a good eleven hours away. There are a lot of new experiences in store for me, new people, and new opportunities. At the same time, I will (and have been) definitely sad over the fact that I won't be surrounded by people from home. I'll be out of my comfort zone, and I'll have to get used to things. But, hopefully everything will be fine.

Beyond that, I plan to aim for medical school to become a neurologist. If that doesn't workout, my backup is to go into neuroscience research. I don't know what type of research yet. And if that doesn't work out, my next move is to become a physician's assistant.

That's all that I thought about so far to be honest lol. I know, it’s a lot, but happiness does come in multiple forms.

There's a lot more to think about life and the future, but I’m not quite ready to think about it all yet. In terms of the blog, I do want to continue to post, but I still have to figure out the specifics. I also want to branch out from my typical life update and life analysis content.

If anyone has any ideas, feel free to leave a comment below! And don't forget to subscribe to the blog for future posts!