One’s high school experience can go in an infinite amount of different directions. For instance, while one person could have spent the majority of their years preparing academically, another person could have spent it practicing for sports, or fine arts, or maybe none of the above. All of which are okay, because the end of high school is just the beginning.

People like to claim that graduating high school isn’t a great accomplishment. While it is true that 83 percent of the country graduates high school, it is still viewed as something to take pride in. What some people fail to realize is that high school can be made significantly more difficult for some people through no fault of their own.

There are people with learning disabilities and/or mental illnesses that make what may seem simple to some, very difficult. I know what’s it like to be made fun of because people think you’re incompetent or uneducated when in reality it’s out of your control. If any of this applies to you, don’t let anybody tell you that what you’re doing isn’t an accomplishment.

Graduating high school is not only an achievement and something to be proud of, it also represents perhaps one of the most important milestones in your life, because this is when our real lives really begin.

It’s not to say that we haven’t started our lives already, but rather that we haven’t started our independent ones. We’re entering a whole new level of growing up and it’s both scary and exciting. It’s time for us to discover who we really are and what we really want to do with ourselves and our lives.

This process can be very overwhelming, for again there are an infinite amount of directions you can take your life, and it’s all up to you which one you choose. All of this starts the second you walk across that stage…are you ready for that?

If not, there is no need to worry. We are programmed to believe that we need our entire lives planned out before we enter college, but there is still time. There actually isn’t a time limit on anything, so if you’re not sure yet, don’t be intimidated by watching those who seem to have it all figured out. Everyone goes at different paces and there is nobody to decide a universal time where everyone is doing what they want. Take your time, for this is your happiness at hand!

For those not graduating this week, I’m here to tell you that what they say is true: every year of high school goes by faster than the last. Whether this be good or bad news for you, it’s important to be aware.

Take your high school experience and treat it with care, but also be aware of the fact that these probably won’t be the best years of your life. They definitely were not for me, but I wouldn’t change one thing. I’ve learned so much from time periods I thought I would never bounce back from, and there are things you can do to keep you going if your high school experience isn’t going as well as you had planned.

For instance, writing weekly columns kept me sane, for it’s something I genuinely enjoy and it allowed me to be a part of something throughout high school, and this meant a lot to me because I was not a part of anything else. You will find one or two things that keep you going through this time, and you need to hold on to them. This is extremely temporary, and your real life is waiting for you at the other end of the stage.