Young Seniority

As a senior in high school, you're bound to feel some sort of superiority over the lower grade students. Whether that seniority remains genuine or turns snobbish is your call.

For me, the seniority remains quite genuine, and quite easy to comprehend, too. You see, the term "seniority" (excluding legislative or categorical uses) is quite a silly term. In this situation, it means having experienced something before the person before you, who has yet to experience that which you've already experienced.

Seniority, thus, is incredibly easy to achieve since it's relative to your experiences. Suppose there's a new ride at the local fair. The group of four riders in front of another group of four riders will build their seniority quick, in 10 minutes or less, over the second group.

The first group is the natural fit for a mentor to the second - with respect to the ride, of course.

And so, when I apply such thinking to my grade level in comparison to those of my younger classmates and friends, I find myself brimming with the seniority I once never had. Just the other day, I was talking with a couple of freshmen about some of the issues they were having in school, from academic ones in their courses to social ones in their lives and relationships.

Some of their concerns were legit, but others were pure rookie mistakes: freaking out about ONE subpar test grade, worrying about ONE failed relationship ... I could've dismissed everything they were saying as insignificant concerns that won't really matter in the long run ... but I played along. I played along and did my best to sympathize with their concerns and offer the most serious advice I could.

I wish I could be more explicit as to what they were saying, but I had this realization a while ago so I can't remember too many details. The point is that I stopped short of vitiating their worries because I didn't want them to experience things too hastily. There's beauty in making rookie mistakes. If I were to reveal to them the secrets I was never told as a freshman growing up, their experience would be less than half what mine was.

And I can't injure them so.