The World of High School

I have 3 girls in HS. Need I say more. I hear on a daily basis the goings on....the arguments with friends, the fights, the heartbreaks, the crushes, the teachers, the work. I listen and try to be as sympathetic as I can and dispense the best advice I can remembering my own teen years. Sometimes it helps and sometimes not so much. Most times they are able to handle things themselves and it takes all my restraint not to get involved.  If there is one thing I could get them to understand completely it is that there is a world outside of high school.
  Teenagers don't see around corners only what is right in front of them and right now high school is their world. As narrow and small as it may be it is an important part of their life. I tell them all the time to enjoy these four years with their friends and not get bogged down by the little things. The problem is that the little things to me are big things to them: once close friends who now are distant, boys who are oblivious to the attentions of girls, teachers who pick favorites, the struggle to be popular, the search to figure out who they are and their place in the world. I can see around the corners.....I know that these things are fleeting moments in their lives. They will fall away and be forgotten like an autumn leaf.  Friends and boys will come and go, popularity is fleeting and it is your responsibility to learn whether you are the teachers favorite or not. What they will remember are the good times with friends, the pride of winning a game, the sense of accomplishment and applause of the crowd after a play performance, the teachers who took the time to make a difference and will not be forgotten, the kindness with which they treated others and the integrity with which they conducted themselves and stayed true to themselves.
It's my job as a parent to prepare them for what is to come but sometimes it's an uphill battle. Their hearts and emotions often override their brains. Sometimes I feel like Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down. But I keep pushing. The best I can tell them is to be yourself whomever that may be, work hard and most of all have fun and hope that they at least will start to peek around those corners.