The beach will have to wait this morning while we wait for the clock to tick 9:45, so my son can register for his Junior year of high school. His biggest decision this morning will be whether to take AP Chemistry or Honors Chemistry next year while postponing the other until Senior year.

Really? This is high school at the highest level, and I can hear myself retracting my ever-so-popular words, “I’d go back to high school in a heartbeat!”

You know the sentiments. You may have said them yourself:

1. I wish I could go back and do it all over again
2. I think I would it enjoy it more as an adult.
3. I’d try harder.
4. I’d do it differently.
5. The best time of my life.

This is a great conversation piece when meeting new people. Ask anyone, “Would you go back to high school?” My research tells me half would go back in a heartbeat, and the other half want absolutely nothing to do with the brick and mortar prison. So, let’s talk it out.

Me? I loved high school; it was good to me. But what I need to do is update my verbiage. “I’d go back to high school in the 90s in a heartbeat.

While I’ve been romanticizing high school all these years, I need to recognize how much it’s changed for our students.

• A new study shows 1 in 3 teenage girls is having suicidal thoughts.
• Absenteeism is at its all time high; kids are not even attending high school.
• Pressure is on for high ACT/SAT scores while the college admissions process is comparable to winning the lottery.
• And, social media is overtaking face to face conversations, friendships and dating creating extreme high and woes.
• Our high school has 17% of our high school students enrolled in our at risk support program as we dig out of pandemic problems.

So, I think growing up in (insert your decade here) the late 80s/early 90s was just plain easier. I go back there in a heartbeat.