Someone, I’m sure, has told you once how important it is to stop every once in a while to smell the roses. Whether you took it to heart or scoffed at it, it’s no secret that this is much easier said than done.
Between jobs, sports, relationships and schoolwork, it’s a miracle any of us have any time to sleep at night, much less stop and “smell the roses.”
I, for one, have always been in somewhat of a hurry — not many people know (I don’t know why they would) that I fully intended to graduate at the end of my junior year.
Most people, if they know me at all, know me as a high-achieving student with a schedule packed full of AP classes and straight As, so this may be taken as a brag of some sort, but in reality, I spent the first two years of high school totally miserable, just barely scraping by in my classes and speaking to absolutely no one. It wasn’t some test of my abilities — I was completely fixed in the mindset of “just get it all over with as soon as possible” and couldn’t possibly imagine having to go through four entire years.
Never did I think in a million years that there could be anything to miss about high school, that I would stay beyond what was strictly necessary, or indeed — that there were any roses to smell along the way.
Truth is, I’ve had all my credits for almost a year now — a token of my quest to graduate early — and yet, I’ve continued to come to school, every day, wearing as big of a smile on my face as I can muster at 7:35 in the morning.
High school is largely what you decide you want it to be. For my first two years, I decided it was horrible, and so it was. I wasted them — plain and simple — and I could spend endless hours wallowing in regret about how many more memories I could be walking away with, but that would be pointless — nothing but time lost on time lost.
I am as comfortable with my regrets as you can be with such uncomfortable things, and I now prefer to spend what little time I have left a bit more productively — in the garden, as it were.
Because soon, everything I have ever known will be thousands of miles away. Very soon, my entire life will be behind me in a very tangible way, and I’ll be faced with what very well could be the biggest series of unknowns I will ever see. Too soon, really, none of us will have the chance to be silly little high schoolers ever again.
But it is spring, and the roses are in full bloom. I urge you to take a moment to gather as many as you can; to stop and smell them — for while you may be lucky enough to keep them until they are withered and dry, they are only fragrant for so long.
