What high school taught me

Hey guys! This is quite a personal post today. I am leaving school for good on Friday and I simply cannot believe that the last seven years of being at my school has finally come to an end and I am now moving onto a new chapter of my life. On one hand I am excited to leave, I feel ready to move onto what life has in store for me but it is hard to leave people, teachers and students, that I will probably never see again behind and move onwards. As with everyone I have had good times and bad times at my school, I've made life-long friends and memories which will stay with me forever. Nevertheless I wanted to make a post telling you some of the things I have learnt through this part of my life, from the age of 11 to the age of 18 and some important lessons that I believe will stay with me forever.

1) Keep going.
One thing I have learnt over the years is to keep going and not to give up in life, weather that's something little or something major. No matter what criticisms you get, or how many papers you get back with a lower grade than you wanted, keep working, keep going and keep trying because eventually you will get there.

2) Bad times don't last forever.
There have been several points in these past few years where I have simply wanted to curl up into a ball and never move again. Sometimes things happen to us and we feel as if we have been blown off the course we were on and we are trying desperatley to find our way back. But one thing I have learnt is that while these patch's are bad, things do get better. There are always new people to talk to, new experiences to have and there is always a blue sky after a storm.

3) Don't judge people
Something I have definitely learnt is not to judge people, either by looks or by first impressions. I have made friends with people whom I did not get on with a few years earlier, now to find that actually we have more in common that I thought. People are not all they seem, and often as you grow older people change and become a lot more mature. I have always been hard working and studious and I admit, I judged people who were not and who messed around in class and labelled them in my own head as people who I didn't like. But as I've got older I have learnt that just because people have different norms and value's to me, does not make them any worse of a person and people should be given a chance, there is so much to learn from everyone.

4) Who I am.
One thing I have learnt, possibly the most important thing is who I am. School and peers have shaped me and I have learnt what I like, what I dislike, what I feel good wearing, what I like to talk about, what hobbies I like doing. When I first started school I was very shy and quiet and I think I still am to an extent that's just who I am but I as I got older I started to come out of my shell. I started to put my hand up in class and not go bright red if someone talked to me. I still go get queasy when speaking in front of people but no where near as much as I used to, I am no longer afraid to voice my opinions and I am so much better for it now.

5) That I am strong and independent.
This is actually a fairly new lesson that I learnt within the last two years of school. I think part of it comes from simply growing up and realising you have your own two feet and your own place in the world. I realised that I am a lot stronger on my own than I thought, I do not need people to tell me how I should be and what I should do, I can manage very well on my own and doing my own thing.

I think these are the main five things! Here's to the next chapter of my life.
Lots of Love
Eleanor x