I never pictured my senior year to be like this. I always assumed I would fly through the work. It would be the easiest year of high school, and I would get my coming-of-age dance montage at my senior prom; however, now I’m struggling through the work. It’s been the hardest year of high school, and I’m definitely not dancing at my senior prom.

Senioritis is a pain in itself…but having senioritis during a pandemic is a whole different story. I don’t have the motivation to wake up for my zoom classes. I don’t feel like turning in my work. I’m pretty sure I and all the other seniors are running on autopilot to graduate at this point.

I honestly have no idea what I’m doing, and I have a slight feeling that I’m not alone. I wish I could tell you that you’ll figure everything out and life will be rainbows and sunshine and glitter will shoot out of your butt; however, I don’t think anyone has everything figured out.

We get caught up in comparing ourselves to other people. I feel like people have a strict timeline that they want their lives to follow and they feel like failures if they don’t follow it. Believe me, I get the notion, you want to be at the same pace as your peers, but life doesn’t always work out like that everyone is different.

The funny thing is that the people that you are comparing yourself to and are thinking have it all together are usually the ones who are struggling the most. We are all on the same Struggle Bus––some of us just get off at different stops.

The worst thing you can do is let someone tell you that you’re a failure. If you are trying your best, you are the farthest thing from a failure. Life is really really freaking hard and if you even have the courage to give it your all, then you have succeeded.

You can really tell that I have no idea what I’m doing because this article is a mess, but I was inspired to write it because more people need to know that taking your time and enjoying life is okay. You don’t have to be the first in your class, first to graduate, first to get a career, first to start a family, or first to buy a house. Your value as a person is not based on how smart, how productive, or how quickly you move through life.

You have value because you are you.