“Alright everyone, get up and do 45 seconds of jumping jacks,” my 7th-hour world history teacher, Mr. Strickland, began to yell on our first day of school. Being in this class with only one other freshman I decided to follow exactly what the sophomores did as to not make a fool of myself. However, my teacher then started spraying students who weren’t standing up with water in order to get people going.

This is how every single day of that class went for the entire year. Throughout most of the first marking period, I would stay sitting until at least half of the class had already stood up despite the fact that I was looking forward to doing these little exercises. 

Eventually one day something took over me. I was the first one to stand up. Everyone was looking at me confused because normally it took at least five seconds of motivation and spraying students for the rest of class to stand up. 

Although at first this was an awkward thing to do, it soon began to feel normal to be the first one standing every day. It felt as though in my own small way I had a role in this class which gave me a sense of belonging. 

What I have learned throughout high school is that being vulnerable is difficult, but it is also the very state that leads to the most growth. After all, high school is the time for growth anyways. 

With each year I spent in high school care an immense amount of growth and noticeable change from the years past. Allowing myself to be different from my peers was the most freeing mindset I took on during high school. Never searching for ways to differentiate myself from others, but rather doing the things that I wanted to do, I was able to find more and more happiness with every year of high school.

If there was any piece of advice that I could give to the current high school students, it would be to do what makes you happy. As cliche as it sounds, it is truly the only way to live.