Ethan Week 2: The Strange Feeling of 11th Grade
11th grade truly is a magical year in life. I recently read an article that suggested that by the time you're 18, half of your perceived life is over. This is because our perception of time changes as we age, the early years of our life can take up a disproportionately large portion of our perceived lifetime. For instance, when you're 1 years old, one year is 100 percent of your life while when you're 35 years old, one year is only 2.86 percent of your life. Hence, it's scary to think about that at 18, your half way done with life. Of course, there are many other factors to take into account when calculating your perceived lifetime, but this study serves as a frightening reminder that life is short.
This is what makes 11th grade so special to me as when you're at the ripe age of 16-17, you somehow feel both young and old. You not only feel like an 81 year old man reminiscing about his memories, but also like an elementary student’s first summer vacation. Life goes by much quicker than when you were a child, yet the daunting ideas of responsibilities and opportunities that come with adulthood makes it feel like life just started. For the first time, many of us are starting to drive, preparing for college, getting into relationships, and even working at jobs. We’re starting to constantly get the question, “What do you want to do in the future?” Adulthood seems to be looming just above us, ever so close like a massive tree clinging to the edge of a mountain cliff.
Yet, every time I look at my old photos, my Lifetouch school portraits, and my yearbook photos, a wave of nostalgia washes over me. At that moment, I can’t shake the feeling that once I was a little kid drawing on walls and counting my halloween candy. Looking back, I realize that so much of me has changed. Your identity grows with you as every new person, interest, and experience shapes who you are. Maybe this is why 11th grade is so strange. We are finally old enough to understand that childhood is disappearing, but young enough to still feel like we barely began. In our perception of life, it feels like we’re squeezed right in the middle. It’s scary yet exciting, magical yet bittersweet. I hope my message reaches all my fellow 11th graders: life is short, our childhood is ever fleeting, our identities keep changing, but we are still young enough to look forward.
Image: Carina Muniz
Ethan, life is most definitely too short. The statistic that you brought up about how half of our perceived life is over by 18 (this might not be fully accurate, but I understand the idea) served as a reminder to me to live a little more.
ReplyDeleteI am sure you can relate to me when I say that school has been way too busy recently. With every year that has passed in high school, my life has slowly become more centered around my performance in school and future academic endeavors. Just like how you said in your blog, we have finally reached the age where society expects us to know what we want to do for the rest of our lives. Despite this, I think we should try not to pay too much attention to what is to come in the future, but instead make the most of what we have now. High school is the final time in our lives when we can still, to some extent, act like kids. Let’s enjoy that feeling. As time goes on, we meet new people, enter new environments, and are exposed to all of the different aspects of life. Only then can we begin to fit together the puzzle pieces of what each of us consider to be a desirable lifestyle.
Thank you for writing this post. You have reminded me that life is about more than just school. I plan to spend more time with my loved ones and enjoy the present moment, and I hope you do the same.
Like you, I have also experienced how strange 11th grade can feel, especially because it feels like my childhood is slowly becoming a memory. Your explanation of how our perception of time changes as we get older was very interesting to me, because I have also noticed that school years seem to go by faster than they did when we were younger. It made me realize that we should appreciate the experiences we have now instead of always waiting for the next stage of life.
ReplyDeleteI also connected with your point about suddenly having more responsibilities and thinking about the future. Being in high school, we are constantly asked what we want to do after graduation. Which can make adulthood feel much closer than it actually is. At the same time, we are still young enough to enjoy spending time with our friends and making memories before everything starts to change.
I enjoyed how you connected growing older with looking back at old pictures and remembering how you used to be. Your idea that our identity changes through every person, interest, and experience should tell me that growing up is not just about getting older, but also discovering who we are. I also enjoyed reading your message to other 11th graders because it reminds us that even though life moves quickly, we still have a lot of time to look forward to.
Hi Ethan. This one genuinely stopped me for a second. I hadn’t heard of the idea that half your perceived life is over by 18, and honestly it’s a little unsettling — but you did a great job of not leaving it there. The way you balance that unsettling math with the more hopeful “young enough to still look forward” idea kept the piece from feeling like a doom spiral.
ReplyDeleteYour line about feeling like an 81-year old man reminiscing and an elementary schooler on summer break at the same time is such a perfect way to describe 11th grade. I feel that constant tug between “everything is changing so fast” and “wait, wasn’t I just a kid yesterday” almost daily now, especially with people constantly asking what I want to do with my future like I’m supposed to have it all figured out.
The bit about looking back at old yearbook photos really got me too — there’s something about seeing your own face change year by year that makes identity feel less like a fixed thing and more like something still being drafted. Really well written — it made me want to go dig up my own old photos and see what I’d notice.
Hi ethan. Frankly, your breakdown of time perception math was such a clever and eerie way to open. It perfectly sets up that sudden "wait, time is speeding up" realization unique to junior year. The metaphor of feeling squeezed between childhood nostalgia and impending adult responsibility hit the nail on the head, especially that vivid image of adulthood looming like a tree on a cliff edge.
ReplyDeleteTo take this post up another notch, you could ground that abstract theory with one specific personal story, likemaybe describing an exact moment behind the wheel while learning to drive or a specific old photo you stumbled upon. Adding a single concrete scene would make the contrast between "then" and "now" feel even more vivid for the reader. Your final message is a really inspiring push for our cohort to stay present instead of just worrying about what's next.