Big Picture.

"There are REAL problems out there, and petty drama in high school is not it."
High school students are often labeled as those who believe their whole life is represented by the situations they are in right now. Adults often remind us to think of how this will affect us in the future.
"This is not going to matter in a year, a month, it is not the end of the world."
They preach this to us every time we come home crying, time and time again hoping that one of these times we will finally understand they are speaking the truth. As much as we hate to admit it, wisdom only comes from years and our parents and adults we speak to usually have plenty of those. I am now realizing this as a junior in high school, way later that I wish I would have realized it, but there in fact is more to life than these halls of my high school.
We are reminded that there is a bigger picture we should look at other times besides when we are caught off guard by petty problems. Such as when we read bibliographies, listen to history lessons, or watch movies with sad endings. However, those humbling thoughts are quickly silenced when our own problems reappear. I am sure that I will forget this sediment sooner than later,  but as of right now I am taking more things with a grain of salt as my time in high school dwindles. The reason for this was my good friend sharing her philosophy on life one late night on a show choir trip. She was able to open my eyes, though unintentionally, to the real problems there were, versus the minute ones we are faced with in high school. Now having a better perspective on how insignificant time, individual people are, and little letters on the tops of papers, I am able to enjoy high school more than I did before this conversation. High school can be really awful and I am sure that I have not seen all the hurdles it has put in front of me yet, but when I take a step back and look at the actual hurdles others are going through, and the ones I might actually have to face when I am older, these ones seem miniscule.
I wish more people could realize this, because if everyone saw the big obstacles that lie ahead in their own paths, or even in the lives of others, why would continue to place these itty-bitty, annoying, and idiotic hurdles in the lanes of others to trip them up. They should rather be preparing themselves to jump the big ones ahead, and worry about themselves. And if they already think they are going to finish this race in one piece, then they could help others by deterring those who refuse to stop placing the little hurtles in others lanes.
The sooner people realize how few days we have left, hopefully the sooner they will understand that causing these petty problems just isn't worth it.
JSL