I’ve been thinking about high school a lot lately. Everything from prom to pimples to “preps” have been on my mind. It started when I stumbled upon my old journal from high school and started reading some of the entries from my senior year. Talk about cringing and laughing simultaneously. So many memories – good and bad – wrapped up in that journal. I’d forgotten about half of the things that seemed so big back then, and I’d forgotten more people than I thought. There was one guy I wrote about, named Josh, who was apparently a thoroughly horrible person in my 17 year old mind.

Today, I couldn’t even tell you who the hell Josh is.

I didn’t sleep at all last night. My mind wouldn’t shut off. That happens sometimes. So after a few hours of tossing and turning, I went into my living room and turned on HBO. “Drive Me Crazy,” that 1999 teen romantic comedy starring Melissa Joan Hart (aka Clarissa Darling/Sabrina Spellman) and Adrian Grenier (before he had his own “Entourage”). I’d forgotten how much I loved that film when I was a teenager. And how obsessed I was with all things Britney Spears.

I graduated high school in 2004, and it seems like forever ago. Reading my journal and watching that film, I was reminded of all the fun things I used to do: Cruising Main Street in Hyden; football games; nights spent in the beds of pickup trucks or on the banks of some mountain creek. I was reminded about all the trouble I caused: practical jokes; running a Gossip Girl style blog about my high school (before Gossip Girl was huge); drinking before, during, and after my sophomore and junior proms. I was reminded of the heartache: my car accident after my senior prom (that didn’t involve alcohol); the death of my friends Bridget and Jazmin; the endless cycle of heartache and torture my ex and I put ourselves through; the general angst and Holden Caulfield mentality I had from the ages of 14 to 16.

You know, high school was a lot of fun. But I hated it the entire time. In one of those journal entries, from December 2003, I said that “Like it or not, in five months I’ll be out of Kentucky for good.” Well, it’s almost five years later, and I’m still here. Funny how those things work out.

If I could go back and do high school over again, I so would. But not because I’d change anything, though there are things I would do differently. I’d do it again because of how much fun it was, and because knowing now what I didn’t know then, I think I’d appreciate everything – from district championship basketball games to high school sweethearts to prom court – so much more. I think I’d realize just how good my friends were, but that they were by and large friends for a season only, not the lifelong friends I anticipated most to be. (Indeed, there are only two friends from high school I can really say I’m still close with.) I’d realize how the drama wasn’t important, how the “scandal” that rocked my high school early in my senior year wasn’t really a scandal at all, and how what everybody thought of me didn’t matter because five years later I wouldn’t even remember who they were. I wish I knew all that then. But I’m so glad I know it now.

Thinking of high school like this, though, had made me realize that I am dangerously close to making the same mistake with college. I’ve been at WKU for four years now, and it’s been one hell of a ride. I’ve had my fair share of highs and lows, triumph and tragedy. But I like to think that I’ve at least appreciated my time on the Hill. I like to think that I gave it my all. And I like to think that I really do realize just how special these five years for me are.

I was talking to a friend of mine last night about Homecoming and her sorority and all those fun things, and I said that this is the most magical time of our lives. She agreed. Thinking about how amazing college is – the nights spent at Guthrie Overlook talking to friends and nights spent in MMTH cramming for a test or writing a paper with classmates; the parties that you never want to end and the parties that probably should have ended hours before they did; the amazing class discussions that are sparked and the horrible pop quizzes that you’re not at all prepared for; the elections you won and the elections you lost; the friends you made and the enemies you found – I couldn’t help but to get a little sentimental. College has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

We were talking about her Spirit Master interview, and she said one of the things they ask is “what does The Spirit Makes the Master mean to you?” I had to think for a moment, and I said that it’s not your name or your position that makes you great, but what you do with that. Example: Franklin Roosevelt wasn’t great because he was a Roosevelt or president; he was great because of how he used that name and that office to change and save the world.

Her answer? Well, it was much better than mine. “The Spirit Makes the Master means that you don’t just come to WKU to be yourself, you come to WKU to become yourself.” I think that’s very true. I wasn’t just able to be myself on campus; I was able to become myself. I grew into my own skin, began to feel comfortable in said skin, and really learned how to be a better scholar, leader, citizen, and person as a result.

With age comes wisdom, my grandmother always reminds me, and in this case I think she’s right. You see, when I weigh high school against college, I’ve had roughly the same amount of good and bad experiences in each. The difference is perspective. In high school I didn’t have enough perspective to appreciate the magic that is adolescence. For the first couple years of my college career, I didn’t have that either. But life on the Hill helped me gain that perspective, as well as a healthy dose of reality and maturity, and I realized that the time we have here at Western is precious. The experiences we have here, even the ones that we think are terrible (like pulling an all-nighter to get that ten page paper done) end up being memories we’re going to cherish.

Hell, one of the best memories I have of last year – which anyone who knows me will say was by far the worst year I’ve had at WKU – was in the McLean study room with friends and acquaintances during finals week last fall. There were about 10 of us that were up until 7:00 am studying for finals we had the next morning, living off of coffee and chocolate. It’s not the healthiest or most productive way of studying, but it paid off and I got an A. And on top of that, I bonded with those people and still remember that night fondly. What seemed like hell at the time turns out to be one of the bright spots of an otherwise bleak year.

It’s funny how that happens. It’s funny how in five or ten years, the things that happen now will seem so unimportant, and yet the magic that’s happening to all of us on the Hill will stick with us. I don’t mean to idealize the college experience; it’s difficult, and for many Western students it’s damn near impossible. Many of you are holding down one or two part- or full-time jobs just to pay tuition on top of having a full course load. But you know, my friend Cory did that, and he looks back on his time at WKU fondly as well. It was hard for him, but he managed, and still thinks that the memories he made here are memories he’ll cherish for a lifetime. “You’re on your own for the first time, just trying to survive,” he once told me. “Your friends become your family, and that forges relationships that last and memories that never fade.”

Well put, methinks. So to sum it all up, friends, I want to say to you that we should enjoy the time we have left on the Hill, because we’re going to miss this. There’s a country song that pretty much sums up what I’m trying to say:

You’re gonna miss this
You’re gonna want this back
You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you’re gonna miss this


And to end with a question…

What’s your favourite memory from your time at Western?

There’ll be a more substantive blog coming about SGA happenings (and one about the football programme!) soon. Bear with me as I tackle midterms one by one.

x. Skylar