Matt | Senior Portraits | Letter To High School Students

it was rare, 
it was there i remember it 
all too well   
taylor swift - all too well
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A Quick Note To High School Students,

Your life is so much stupid, delicious, brilliant fun.   Have so much fun.  With whatever you have fun doing.  You are old enough, and real enough, to understand pain and to have worthy questions (then again, three-year-olds have splendid questions, too) and to be very, very confused.  But mostly, kids, your life is so much fun.  Some of you are lollipops - sweet and colorful and fairly simple and very hard to break.  Some of you are like bubble gum - constantly changing and easily popped and a little broken and very good.  Some of you are like dark chocolate - feeling a little too old for "this" and not sure where you fit with all these tart sweets and, well, mature beyond your years and ready to be done with high-school.  Some of you are Nerds, AirHeads and a very sour bear.  But, you're all candy... which is fantastic.  ("Um, dark chocolate is not candy."  I know, I know.)

Here's a quick thought for you: even if you're very mature, you're still only in high school.  So savor being a high-schooler.   I know, I know, I know... everyone tells you to enjoy it now! It goes by so fast!   Be content!  But be responsible!  The reality is that you're doing these fun little grown-up things like driving around town, figuring out your passions and personality, making a little bit of money and you're also doing so many little kid things like wearing braces, taking tests and not doing all your own paperwork for life (no really, go kiss your mother RIGHT NOW for all the insurance and social security and financial and tax forms she takes care of for you.)

Have fun.  And chill out.  And do what's fun to you.  Chill-ly.  If you just like to curl up alone and read - go for it.  Someday you're going to have to support yourself and pay bills and you won't be able to read this much.  Or if you're really social, go to all the concerts and all the games and all the outings.  And spend an hour or two getting ready, because you can.  Oh, I know.  You'll tell me you're so busy with homework. SO BUSY.  Figure out how to chill out, now.   But, if you really love school and learning and doing homework, and that's fun to you - go for it, kid.  Just make sure you're best friends are the zany ones.  This will help you be a balanced person.

Life gets significantly better after high school, but there is also nothing like high school.  Nothing.  And I was home-schooled ;)  Be stupid and silly and safe and fearless and annoying and sharp and wild and free.  You're finishing up kid-hood.  The ante gets higher real soon, and real fast.  The stakes rise.  No matter how mature you are now, you will see a new, deeper, hurt-ier world when you're an adult.  It's just part of growing up.  You have to fight a little harder to be wide-eyed and glowy.   Your schedule isn't predictable.  You don't have "summers-off."  You never get the freedom that you have right now ever again.  Stay up late, and flirt with your crush, and sleep-in, and, well, I don't know how to say it: do what is fun to you.  You're literally free to.  I miss it.  I never want to go to high school ever again, but my heart expands and grows teddy-bear fur when I remember it.  I loved those stupid, delicious, brilliant years.

Happy High School,
A Sentimental Newlywed Adult, Business Woman and High School Graduate
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Congratulations on your senior year, Matt.  Have fun.