By Ankur Kayastha ’15

Adolescence is a confusing time in everyone’s life. You have the expectations of an adult, but the freedom of a child. You are guaranteed to make mistakes, yet no one seems to understand when you do. This is the life of many teens going through high school, especially if you don’t hang around the right people. The people around you singlehandedly become the most important aspect you can control. They can make you the happiest, and they can mess you up.

The first two years of high school are easily the most boring. You have to be concerned about school because freshman and sophomore year are the foundation of your academic life. You have to care, and if you don’t, good luck to you in the future. It’s repetitive and slow. But you get through it. Attempting to fit in with friend groups becomes cumbersome, and you really don’t know yourself yet.

Then here comes junior year. It will arguably be the worst year of your life thus far, in terms of rigor and workload. That’s when you go hardcore and show colleges what you’ve got – filled transcript, standardized testing and added lines to the résumé. You will lose sleep and it will be a long year. But school isn’t the hard part. It’s choosing the right people to be around.

In the midst of junior year, everyone changes, whether they acknowledge it or not. This is the year everyone is able to drive on his or her own and become virtually independent, or at least elusive. Exposure to drugs and alcohol become a reality and friend groups change. Radically. Curiosity really kicks in when you’re 16 or 17, but some people go off the rails with it. What you longed for so much— freedom and a limitless atmosphere—may be more overwhelming than you would like to believe. It isn’t easy making decisions that could offset your future.

I walked in wanting to make all the friends in the world. It’s my senior year now and I’m most proud of the select few friends I’ve found. I’ve only got like, five, but I’d let each and every one of them live in my basement if it comes down to it. Whether they’re minutes away at Maryland, or more than 4 hours away at Pitt, Amherst, or BYU, I know I’ll always have people to count on. You’ll know who your real friends are by the end. If you’ve got a nickname, you made the cut. I can count mine on one hand because I took my time finding them. That’s what I call adulthood.