Do you know how much can change in four years? You don't just have time for that stereotypical "180". No, four years is enough time to turn that 180, realize that you're heading in the wrong direction, and turn another 180 so you're back where you started from. In fact, I think that after four years, everyone stays in the same place. From those nerve wracking days of the summer right before high school, to the nerve wracking days of the summer right after, you reflect and you realize that you're in exactly the same spot that you started in. Leaving middle school is a huge deal. We are all excited to finally become "mature", to undergo that transition that we believe will give us the ultimate enlightenment. During the next four years, we change, as we expected. But what we change into is not always anticipated. If we have any chance of survival in this world, and perhaps even subconsciously, we take that change and we change back. Now, we only realize this in the last few days of our right to childhood that is high school. And I'm not talking that last week of school. No, I mean that last week of summer. That very last chance we're given to jump on the train, and if we have the smallest chance of making it, we clear it. The time space for that jump is so limited that a lot have failed to notice its existence. But those who do, I won't say will go far, but will be ok. And once we realize that we've just gone in a huge, dramatic, emotionally draining circle, it's enough to make anyone want to laugh and give up on the spot. We did all of that for nothing, right? We're right back where we started. All that hype for nothing. But that's wrong. We may not have much to show on the outside, but we remember that circle. We remember the 180, and then the second 180. And it's that memory that counts. That memory is the transformation we've looked forward to since we started picking out our own clothes. And you can try to tell that to the kids who are about to enter the circle, the ones who think it's the greatest thing ever to finally be able to call yourself a freshman in high school, but they won't get it. They have to experience it themselves. But once you gain this knowledge, you won't forget it. Once you realize that virtually nothing has happened at all, that's when you can finally start to make something happen.