in less than a year, it would be ten years since i was in high school...

i don't really know how to sum up what my entire high school experience was but, at that time, it seemed like the most important time of my life.

i was eventually forced to transfer from a private Catholic school into a public high school. looking back, i believe that i should have been warned. although i spent most of my growing years in a private school setting, it's my experiences in the public school which defined me - it made somehow better and a little bit worse. 

i learned how to lie without batting an eyelash. i learned how to smoke effectively that by my third day i was already a chain smoker. i learned how to drink alcohol, and not just those girly screwdriver mixes. i learned hard, liver-smashing drinking. i remembered how we mix Red Horse (one of the stronger local beers) and gin bilog (a cheap but wicked variety sold for about twelve pesos per bottle at that time) and drink to our hearts content - or as our allowances would be able to afford.

i much rather not go into the dirty details as it may be taken against me.

but i lived a high school life devoid of self control. i could even say that i lived on the edge. even the day before our graduation was a testament to how much we've pushed the definition of problem teens. one of my closest pals nearly got shot.

i realized then (or sometime after that) that the life i want to live is nowhere near where i was. i was a loud, rebellious, and ignorant drunkard. and it was too bad because i really did well on my NSATs. i realized that i wanted to go to college. i wanted to finish my schooling and i wanted to do a better job in living my life. 

i got into a good college, finished a degree, took a post-graduate course and passed the board exams - i think i've done so much better now. 

so i guess high school is really just a time in one's life. whether you were called a brainiac, a dork, a slut, a clown, a rebel, or an idiot - it's okay. it's just high school. it's what you do after it that really counts.