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This spring will mark ten years since I graduated from my small Christian high school, and though the landscape of my life has changed drastically since then, there are valuable lessons I learned from that time. I thoroughly enjoyed my high school experience and wouldn't trade it for anything, even though I know my high school wasn't typical and what I got out of it probably was pretty unusual as far as high school goes.

We actually had to sign an agreement at my school called the "24 hour rule," that said we wouldn't consume any drugs or alcohol on or off school property, any time of the day or night (the consequence of this being expulsion.) Since I was a pretty high-anxiety, rule-following kid anyway, this didn't seem like that much of a sacrifice. I have since learned that this is a major pastime for a lot of high schoolers-getting into shenanigans at parties where everyone drinks cheap beer until they throw up and/or pass out in the basement of whoever's parents are out of town. While many consider this a rite of passage for getting through high school, my first suggestion would be: Surround Yourself With Wholesome People. I can't tell you how much fun I had with my friends in high school (guys and girls), playing ridiculous pranks on our teachers, driving all over town, cooking for each other, and just being silly teenagers. It seems that there is so much you miss out on when you spend so much of your free time drunk or high. These are formative years for getting to know who you are, who you want to be, what you want to pursue in life, and it's hard enough without bringing all that other stuff into it. I had a solid group of friends who kept things somewhat easy breezy, I wouldn't put the term "group date" on it, but there were definitely guys in the group that I would have crushes on or vice versa, and I'm so glad I spent a lot of that precious high school time mostly with the group, playing games, getting to know all kinds of things about boys and people and myself. Also, I had an incredible group of female friends who had a sort of reverse peer pressure effect on me. Of the dozen or so women I've been friends with through high school, almost 100% of them waited until they were married to have sex. That's a lot of people committed to waiting and it doesn't seem hard or weird when all your friends believe in it.

Another guideline that was suggested to me in high school and that always helped me was: Set limits for yourself and stick to them. If you are

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