I am just going to come out and say this. High School sucks. It really does. I find it a bit unnecessary if you already know what you would like to do for the rest of your life (like which career field you are planning to enter). I can see how it would be helpful to those who are struggling to decide what to do with their life, which is absolutely fine, but it is a waste of time for the rest of us. I know exactly what I would like to accomplish during with my journey in to secondary education. By the time I am done with college, I would like to have a Bachelors of Science for Audio Engineering and an Associates Degree in Political Sciences. I am incredibly motivated towards those two goals. The same is not true in high school. I find myself spacey, unmotivated, and it's getting to the point where it's verging on Senioritis. Honestly, there are only 2 things that have gotten me as far as I have in high school: My music and my friends.
There are mainly three albums that have gotten me through my time spent in high school. Those albums are
In With The Out Crowd- Less Than Jake - Sophomore Year (9th grade was in middle school in my town)
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket- Blink-182 - Junior Year
The Upsides-The Wonder Years- Senior Year
These three albums... They are always going to be special to me. They have gotten me through so much of the crap that I've experienced in high school. I hope that they can do the same for anyone else who reads this. But here's why they got me through
In With The Out Crowd
From track 1 this album described my situation. I was going to a new school and knew that I wasn't going to be seeing my old friends hardly at all. I was so unsure of myself. I knew that I had made a lot of mistakes in Junior High and I was really regretting everything. I was unsure of my future, unsure of who my friends were, and definitely unsure of where my classes were. I must have gotten lost at LHS 15 times the first day. I guess this album helped me find people I fit in with because it made me realize that I didn't fit in with all the jocks, preppy slutty girls, and the shitty dudes who do every drug in the book. I managed to find people just like that and we became friends.
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
I think that this album stuck out so much for me because it was I was still at the point of where I was still doing stupid shit. I wasn't drinking, but I was smoking weed from time to time and I wasn't making the best decisions. I also had the strange notion in my head that I could just bullshit my way through life. I can honestly say that I hate Junior me. It was a fun time, but I wish I had taken it a little bit more seriously. And by that, I mean I wish I had been more focused on academics rather than doing stupid things that probably could have gotten me into some serious trouble. Take my advice and goof off during your freshman year. When it comes to Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year take your schoolwork seriously. I know it sounds weird for me to be saying this, but it is really important if you want to have any kind of future. But it's still okay to draw penises on you best friend's notebook in sharpie from time to time.
The Upsides
I'm not going to lie. When I started out my senior year, I wasn't in a good place. I was depressed, beaten down, my panic attacks and anxiety attacks had grown increasingly common, and I had even thought about suicide. This isn't just what high school does to you. It's what LIFE does to you. Soupy from The Wonder Years says it best on the vinyl release of the album:
" The whole world wants you to be miserable. It wants you to put your head down, sigh to yourself and give up on being happy."
Well, that was me. I had just given up. The awful part is that nobody even knew that I was this bad. Every single day I would put on a smile everyday and pretended that nothing was wrong when reality, I was dying inside. As time went on, my panic attacks grew to the point where I just couldn't face people anymore. I was having 14 panic attacks in a 48 hour time frame. Do you know how scary that is? What's even scarier was that I still wasn't talking to anybody about how I felt. Take my advice kids: If you are suffering from depression, you don't have to go through it alone. There are people all around you that love and care about you that you can talk to. And if they don't understand... make them understand. Please don't go through it alone. This was all building up until I started my final semester of High School and my friend suggested I listened to The Upsides.
I am so glad that he did. Every word on the album was something I could relate to. That album saved me from a mental breakdown. I've heard it said that music can't really save lives, but I probably would have killed myself if it weren't for this album. And I mean that. I cannot stress how bad of a place I was in.
Y'know Soupy also says this on the vinyl
"I know just as well as anyone that sometimes, giving up seems like the only option, but if you take one thing from this record, I hope it's this. Don't let give those motherfuckers and inch. Stand your ground every chance you get because everyone deserves a chance to be happy"
Because of this album:
"I'm not sad anymore, I'm just tired of this place. If this year would just end, I think we'd all be okay. "
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Shit Ryan Says
"AHHH! There's snow in my underwear!"
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Quote of the Day
No quote today, But I have a challenge for you.
We all know that most days are bad days and we can't just wait for someone to pull us off of the concrete.
My challenge is to look at the worst part of you day and try and find an Upside and tweet it to me at
@Himynameisnater using the hashtag #TheUpsides
Soupy did this same thing back when The Upsides was released, but I would like to reinstate it. There's an Upside to everything.
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Song of the Day
My Last Semester by The Wonder Years
I'm not sad anymore.
-Laterz from Naterz
