Once a VOXer, always a VOXer. Our series “Life After High School” features recent VOX ATL alums giving the teens coming up behind them the real deal on what life is like after graduation.
Despite the drama of second semester goodbyes — and vaguely vigil-esque tears shed for the ‘high school family’ you’re leaving behind — it turns out there is a life outside of high school. One that has included many more beautiful memories, people and boxes of white cheddar Cheez-Its than I could have anticipated.
Life after high school has been both better and worse.
For what it’s worth, I have never felt as in control of what I do with my life and who I do it with as I feel now. I am entering my second semester of my sophomore year at the University of Southern California and already I feel miles apart from who I was in high school (not only because I literally am miles away).
I am learning to be conscious of who I surround myself with and what I spend time doing and college gives you that space to be selective. You have to space to start coming into yourself.
Being so in control of your life is also terrifying. It turns out things won’t get done if you don’t do them. For maybe the fifth month now my rent has refused to pay itself or disappear. As time for switching majors dwindles, all that control or freedom to choose can also get increasingly daunting.
Still, the feelings are all the same. The joy is all the same whether it’s getting a snow day or your card not getting declined at Trader Joe’s. Life after high school is the same game just with higher stakes.
