High school is a lot of things.

Streaks of drool against textbook pages lined with information that become useless and forgotten within a matter of years; a classroom filled with eyes trained on the hands of the clock as it ticks away the time far too slowly; the roar of hundreds of students clamoring through the hallways as they trudge into the school every morning; hands waving through the cafeteria food scented air as people call their friends over to their tables.

For me, school was one word: misery.

School was getting up at 5 a.m. in the morning after a night drenched in insomnia, the sheer exhaustion and yawns during morning assembly, zombified walks to class with a tinge of judgmental stares and ugly eye-glances. It was mountains of homework for every subject from every teacher everyday of every week, pointless presentations that take up 30% of your monthly tests, mind-boggling equations that can't be solved even with scientific calculators, and formulas for the average rate of time the teacher takes telling you off on how wrong you are. It was sitting outside the biology lab finishing homework, entering the chemistry lab greeted by the view of white coats never worn, and carrying truckloads of paperback textbooks on your way to the kiosk. It was being a senior and not feeling like a senior, every single lie told by someone you thought you could trust, backstabbing so-called friends and awkward conversations with juniors more mature than you. School was finishing class at three and having your mom pick you up at six, the demerits for not wearing the school badge, and the need for sleep every minute of every waking hour. School was all the pain and suffering that could never compare to any hardship, so much that if kindergardeners knew about the crap one had to go through during high school they'd rather beg to have scraped knees for the rest of their lives than spend six and a half hours at school. School was all this, and so much more.

Keywords: so much more.

School was the education you craved so much for, the cool breeze during the morning walks after entering the school gates, intentionally bumping into peers you know and sending off sarcastic smiles to your dorkiest friends. School was raising your hand and answering the question correctly, cheeky presentations from adorable classmates, being able to solve the equation without using a scientific calculator, and laughing your heart out at silly jokes made by your favourite teacher. School was the conversations you had with friends while walking to the library, the inside jokes you made up during late classes, and squishing each other while pacing towards the cafeteria. School was the five minute breaks teachers gave that you always appreciated, standing up in the middle of a lesson and walking halfway across the room just to whisper a random thought to your best friend, and sneaking out to the bathroom just to catch a breather. School was the exciting experiments during biology and chemistry and physics, the surprise field-trips that you didn't have to pay for, and the witty performances up onstage during the Teacher's Day celebration. School was being a senior and still being able to act like a kid, realizing who your real friends are, and having juniors that dote on you despite being younger than you. School was the life you hated but would never trade for the world. School is the life that you'll never get back.

Yeah.