(December 20, 2002) — With the end of the year coming to a near end, what exactly have we learned this time around? Somewhere amid the procrastination, I learned that high school isn’t all about the friends and the classes. It isn’t about the unsystematic hooking-up and constant studying. High school isn’t about the pretending to study for tests and the number of times you find your supposed “soul mate.” It isn’t about the times where you smile because you have absolutely no idea what’s going on. It isn’t about the days where the world is so harsh that getting up in the morning becomes yet another obstacle to face. Somewhere along the line, I learned that high school is all about the lessons—big and small, the taking chances, and the vigorous ups and downs. We take advantage of the bad things that happen to us. The bad things in life open our eyes to the good things we weren’t paying attention to before. When the day comes that we will be the ones constantly telling our own children to “enjoy it while they can,” we too will regret that we didn’t make the most of our high school careers. While there are the striving few who will get higher than they ever anticipated, a majority of us will be sitting in that confined cubicle thinking, “How did I end up here?” Now, don’t get me wrong—every profession is just as honorable as the next, but it’s whether or not you’re sincerely satisfied sitting at that desk of yours. It’s whether or not you like the sound of “doctor” in front of your last name. And it all starts here—high school. No matter how smart someone is, she will never realize what she has, until it’s gone. We are all privileged enough to understand that we aren’t going to have it this good the whole way through. So, while we’re in high school, we shouldn’t think about what we can’t have, but appreciate what’s right under our nose. We all want what we can’t have. And once we have it, we take it for granted. It’s not until we’ve lost it that we grasp the value. Don’t take things for granted, because the next thing you know, they’re gone.